


There Is The Force

by Overanalyzer



Series: There Is The Force [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Bounty Hunters, Jedi, Multi, Murder Mystery, Old Republic Era, Post-The Old Republic, Pre-Knight Errant, Sith, Slow Burn, The Dark Side of the Force, Zeltrons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2018-09-27 21:49:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 32,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10052828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Overanalyzer/pseuds/Overanalyzer
Summary: Jason Grace, Jedi Knight, has been tasked with tracking down two missing Jedi and uncovering their a connection to a grisly murder. But the galaxy is big, complicated place, and with the Dark Side at work, nothing is ever what it seems.





	1. A Knight of the Old Republic

The Hutt’s Head was a smoky nightclub on the 4,383rd level of Megablock 9790 in Coruscant’s Vessa District. The signage outside advertised, in eye-searing neon: a full bar with refreshments from over 600 worlds; a kitchen serving appetizers and entrées compatible with the digestive systems of humans, near-humans, and a wide variety of alien species; and live entertainment at all hours. It was an establishment that a tourist guide might describe as “semi-respectable”; high enough to see the sky, low enough to be affordable, and just close enough to the more important places in Republic Center to be reasonably safe without attracting significant scrutiny from planetary security. A place where the district’s residents could go to indulge themselves and mingle with those visitors to the planet that weren’t wealthy enough to afford one of the city’s real hotspots, but not so desperate as to try for something closer to the surface.

 

It was a place he’d normally like to avoid, but Jason Grace had work to do, and it had led him here.

 

He approached the bar. The barkeep was a Devaronian, who eyed Jason’s robes with mild curiosity; Jedi weren’t known to frequent places like this.

 

“Wet your whistle?” the man asked.

 

Jason shook his head. “I’m looking for someone,” he said, “a bounty hunter.”

 

The barkeep raised what would have been an eyebrow, had he been human. “You the guy, then?” He gestured to the far corner. “She’s over there, past the dejarik tables.”

 

Jason nodded and turned. The club wasn’t overly crowded, and he could already make out the ones he’d come to see as he passed a pair of Ithorians engrossed in a game.

 

They were both human, like Jason; a man and a woman, dark haired and dressed comfortably, seated in a corner booth. Both wore blasters on their belts, and held drinks in their hands. Both were laughing at something.

 

“And he really bought that?” The woman asked her companion incredulously. “Bith, I swear…” It was then that she caught sight of Jason and smirked approvingly as she looked him up and down. “Well, looked what the katarn dragged in. You’re Grace, I assume?”

 

Jason nodded. “Piper McLean?”

 

“The very same. This,” she gestured at her companion, “is my partner, Leo.”

 

“Valdez,” Leo finished the introduction, raising a glass of iced retsa in welcome. Jason already knew his name from the brief call he’d placed to the pair earlier, but didn’t comment.

 

Jason took a seat across from the pair. “This conversation might have been more productive at the temple,” he pointed out, “and less likely to be overheard.”

 

Piper snorted. “You really think anybody here cares what you’re doing, or what we’re talking about?” she asked, sweeping out a hand at the rest of the club. “Trust me, nobody gives a damn, Jedi or not.” She took a sip of her ale, her amused eyes never leaving Jason. “And you’ll forgive us for not feeling comfortable with walking into your fortress.”

 

“You’d have nothing to fear.” Jason reached out with the Force, trying to get a feel for these people. Distrust hummed around them both, mingled with curiosity, and...humor? But he couldn’t get any read on their intentions. He didn’t sense any hostility, however. Perhaps their unwillingness to trust was simply caution; a useful trait in their line of work, Jason supposed.

 

“You’re here now,” Piper said, “so clearly it doesn’t matter.” She looked at her glass, frowned, and waved over at a waitress to bring her another. “Annabeth didn’t pay us to keep our mouths shut, anyway. She said you guys would come looking.”

 

That got Jason’s attention. “So it’s true? You’re in contact with Knight Chase?”

 

“Not anymore,” Leo said with a shrug.

 

“She came to us about three weeks ago,” Piper clarified. “Asking for information. The last time we talked was nine days ago.”

 

“What did she want?”

 

“The location of a certain individual.” Piper smiled coyly. Jason had been at the table for less than a minute, but he was starting to get the feeling that these two found this whole situation amusing. It wouldn’t be the first time an informant took advantage of a Jedi’s attention for a bit of fun, but this situation was more important that they realized, and he was starting to get annoyed.

 

“I need a name,” Jason said insistently. He was being strung along, that much was obvious, but he was certain these two knew something.

 

Leo grinned. “Ever hear of a guy named Asterion?” Jason’s breath caught in his throat.

 

“Asterion is dead.” Had been dead for almost two years, ever since…

 

Piper shrugged. “Maybe. His name’s still on the STR, though, and that was where we started.”

 

“What’s the STR?”

 

“Special Targets Registry,” Leo supplied. “A list of all the really bad guys the Republic wants gone. It’s all high-risk stuff. ‘Extremely Dangerous, Do Not Approach,’ that sort of thing. But bagging someone on that list is worth a lot of credits, if you’re crazy enough to go after one.”

 

Jason couldn’t believe he’d never heard of this. “The senate has bounties out on _Sith Lords_?”

 

“It’s not unheard of,” Piper said. “I’m not that desperate, but once in awhile, somebody pulls it off.”

 

“And Chase wanted information on this bounty?”

 

“She did. Was willing to grease the engines to get it, too. I asked around. Called in a favor or two.” She shrugged. “Nothing solid, but if you wanna chase a ghost, rumor has that Kinyen is the place you wanna start.”

 

“Kinyen?” The Gran homeworld didn’t seem like the place for a dead Sith to blend in.

 

Piper just shrugged again. “Like I said, rumors.”

 

“Rumors people are paying a lot of money for,” Leo said. “People like your friend, Annabeth. Don’t know where a Jedi got that kind of money.” Neither did Jason. Another question to ask Chase when he caught up with her, on top of why she thought Asterion was alive, and what she wanted with him, and most of all…

 

“Thank you for your help,” Jason said, getting to his feet. “If you think of anything else, please, contact the Jedi Temple.” He turned to make his way out of the club and back to his speeder.

 

“Y’know,” Piper called after him, “you haven’t asked the big question.” He paused, but didn’t turn around.

 

“What question is that?” He asked.

 

“You never asked us what we know about Percy Jackson.”

 

This time, Jason _did_ turn around.

 

“No more games,” he said quietly as he leaned over the table. These bounty hunters had just inserted themselves into something the Order was trying _very_ hard to keep private, and Jason would have answers. “What do you know?”

 

“As much as you do, I’d guess.” Piper didn’t seem at all concerned about the agitated Jedi Knight in front of her, taking another sip of her drink.

 

“C’mon man, don’t give us that look,” Leo drawled. “Big time war hero like that, people take notice when he goes off the lanes.”

 

“Knight Jackson’s actions are an internal matter. Just what did Chase tell you?”

 

“Nothing we didn’t know already.” Piper cooed, just shy of mockery. “It’s not a secret. I’m sorry if you thought it was, but like Leo said, people notice when the most famous Jedi in the galaxy has an...episode.”

 

Jason could feel his teeth grinding together. This woman was sitting here, discussing matters of life and death and the safety of the Republic like it was a grav-ball match put on for her entertainment. The glib arrogance of these bounty hunters was wearing on his nerves and...and…

 

“What are you doing to me?” He asked.

 

“Oh, Pipes, I think he’s catching on,” said Leo, before draining his glass. “She was right. They _are_ worried.”

 

Jason scowled. “Do I have to place you under arrest?”

 

“Ha!” Piper shook her head. “No, no. Sorry. Can’t blame a girl for being curious. I promise, no more pheromones for you.” Pheromones? That explained why Jason’s fuse seemed to be so short with these two.

 

“Piper’s half-Zeltron,” Leo explained. “Great for getting someone to talk. Or react.”

 

“Do you think this is funny?”

 

“No,” Piper responded cooly, “I think it’s strange. The kind of strange that could be dangerous...and lucrative. I think we can help each other.”

 

“Could you be direct, for once?” Jason was growing weary of this woman and her manipulations.

 

“You’re going to Kinyen,” Leo said. It wasn’t a question.

 

“Perhaps.”

 

“‘Perhaps,’ he says. ‘Definitely,’ I say. You’re still here, which means you don’t have anything else.” He was right, but Jason wasn’t about to admit it.

 

“So,” Piper interjected, “You’re on your way to track down rumors of a Sith Lord, for sake of finding a couple of Jedi you...misplaced. Say it comes to a fight…”

 

Jason felt his eyebrow shoot up. “I thought you weren’t that desperate?”

 

“We’re not. You are. Chase is looking for Asterion. You’re looking for Chase. You need to know what she knows and find Jackson before this whole thing goes public. We’re willing to help with that, and all we want in return is to know if this Sith Lord of yours is still alive after all, and to bring him in if he is.”

 

“You said it was too dangerous. That it was crazy.”

 

“You’re a Jedi,” Piper said dismissively. “And as for us, we’re good at what we do. I like our odds if we do stumble across something, and if we don’t, then you’re getting help for free.”

 

Leo grinned, all teeth. “That’s one for you, one for us, and one for public safety.”

 

“You expect me trust you after you already admitted to trying to drug me?”

 

“ _We_ told _you_ about the pheromones.” Piper pointed out. “I’m not even that powerful, and if a mighty Jedi Knight can’t stop little old me when he already knows about my tricks, well…” she raised her glass in a mocking toast, “...the galaxy’s in worse shape than I thought.” She slid out of the booth, and her partner followed. “You don’t have to decide right now. But if it turns out you’re willing to accept our help, our ship will be at the Chancellor Blotus Memorial Spaceport for the next week. After that, we’re leaving for Bogden.” Piper smiled at him as she turned to leave. “Think it over, Grace.”

 

“Catch you later.” Leo said, waving over his shoulder as he and Piper disappeared into the growing mass of sentients crowding the club, leaving Jason alone and feeling like an apprentice who’d just gotten called upon by an instructor when he hadn’t been paying attention, and had no answer to give.

 

*******

 

Nightfall found Jason back in his quarters, trying to clear his mind for meditation, but mostly just coming back to what the bounty hunters had said.

 

The Council had placed a great deal of trust in Jason. The affair with Jackson was bad enough. Chase’s disappearance had made things worse, and if the hunters were telling the truth, then a dangerous Sith Lord was at large in the galaxy again.

 

 _If_ they were telling the truth. McLean and Valdez had tried to appeal to his sense of public good, but their kind was motivated by profit. For all he knew, their offer of help was a pretense to get him to let his guard down and then deliver him to the Sith himself. After Thyferra, he wouldn't be surprised to learn he'd fetch a high price.

 

Only...if they wanted his guard down, why tip their hand regarding McLean’s Zeltron heritage? They had to know he’d distrust them after that. But he hadn’t sensed anything of the dark side in the two. They were fairly opaque, true, but Jason liked to think he was skilled enough to know if they meant him any harm.

 

The door chimed. “Come in,” Jason called out.

 

The door slid open to reveal the form of Master Chiron, bent over to see through the doorway. “Jason,” the Master greeted, “may we speak?”

 

“Of course, Master.” Jason rose and made for the door; the room was too large to accommodate the Master. It suited Jason fine. Meditation was getting him nowhere.

 

“How goes the search?” Chiron inquired as they made their way down the corridor, his hooves echoing as they hit the tile of the floor.

 

“I may have a lead… _if_ the source can be trusted.”

 

“You’re unsure?”

 

“I am,” Jason, admitted. “They’ve offered help, but they’re difficult to read. And they don’t seem to trust the Jedi any more than I trust them.”

 

“The bounty hunters that Annabeth was seen with?” Chiron asked.

 

“Yes.” Jason hesitated a moment as they climbed into a turbolift, wondering if their claim was worth bringing up. He decided it couldn’t hurt. “Master, the bounty hunters claimed that the Lord Asterion was alive. I thought he’d been killed in the attack on the temple?”

 

“Hmm. It’s possible,” Chiron allowed. “We believed him dead, but we know the Sith took his body as they fled. It may be that his injuries were not as severe as Percy thought.”

 

“The hunters claim that Knight Chase wanted information about his whereabouts. They say he’s rumored to be on Kinyen. I can’t verify it, but…” Jason sighed, “...I have no other leads. And this one is nine days old already.”

 

“Kinyen.” Master looked contemplative. “It may be. If Asterion lives, then Percy… I would hope he wouldn’t go looking for revenge, but I must consider the possibility, now more than ever. Annabeth would no doubt reach the same conclusion.”

 

“Will she try to stop him?” If anyone could predict Jackson and Chase, it was sure to be their former Master.

 

“Stop him, or help him. They were always close, and given her disappearance, I can’t rule out that she may be an accomplice.” The old master sighed sadly. “But this is speculation. For now, they must simply be found, guilty or innocent.” He stopped, turning his massive body to face Jason directly. “I want you to follow up on this. As you said, it is the only lead we have. I’ll arrange a ship for you.”

 

“That... _may_ not be necessary, Master.” Jason scratched at the back of his neck. “The bounty hunters have offered to help. They say there may be money in bringing down a wanted Sith.”

 

“I see.” Chiron went quiet for a moment. “If you feel this is wise, I’ll allow it. Our Knights are spread too thin at the moment, the bounty hunters may be the only assistance you’ll have on this mission.” He placed a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Be cautious, Jason. The Dark Side clouds everything. I sense there is more going on here than meets the eye.”

 

“I will, Master. Thank you.” Jason bowed.

 

“May the Force be with you, Knight Grace.”

 

*******

 

Jason’s walk back to his quarters was quiet. He now had a purpose: find the truth about the Sith Lord’s miraculous survival, and determine Chase’s interest, and with her, Jackson’s.

 

Jason sat down at his console. He would trust these bounty hunters, for now, but only so far. Accessing the space traffic records, he looked up the transponder code for their ship. The _Festus_ was a modified XS-7 light freighter. The Republic Transit Authority had it listed as possessing aftermarket modifications to the hyperdrive, shield generator, and armaments, but was nonspecific. The ship was registered to Leo Valdez, native of Corellia, certified by the Department of Law as a bounty hunter. He saved the code to his official log; if the hunters were up to something, the Order would know what to look for.

 

Having done that, he opened the Archive records. He knew the file by heart at this point; from the smiling portrait of the black-haired youth, to the biographical details, to the medical history; but a review couldn’t hurt.

 

**Perseus Jackson**

**Age: 22**

**Rank: Knight**

**Born: PI 219**

**Homeworld: Phaeda**

**Relations: Sally Jackson (deceased PI 231)**

**Discovered by Master Chiron in a refugee camp on Bilbringi following the invasion of  Phaeda by the Sith. Accepted for training in spite of age restrictions per Council decree 228-513.**

 

**Exposed Knight Luke Castellan as a Sith spy in PI 235.**

 

**Participated in the Second Battle of Umbara, PI 236. Believed KIA; in reality taken into Sith custody. Escaped after 27 standard days. Informed the Council of the Holocron of Kronos, the means of Castellan’s corruption.**

 

**Was not taken to the Battle of Thyferra in PI 239 due to injury. Led defense of the temple during the subsequent Sith raid, resulting in the death of Luke Castellan and the destruction of the Holocron of Kronos. Knighted thereafter.**

**Currently sought for questioning regarding the murder of 55 civilians on Denon. Jedi Council Inquiry in cooperation with Republic Department of Law classifies Jackson as Primary Suspect. Approach with caution.**


	2. How to Make Enemies and Influence Storylines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason and his companions get straight to business, a disappointing lunch gets served, and a new friend(ish) makes a first impression.

“Double-layer hull plating, forward cannons, dorsal and ventral turrets…” Leo rattled off some the  _ Festus’  _ specs as he and Jason boarded. “...hyperdrive’ll make .75, down to .68 if you get a little mean with it.” They entered the main hold, where Piper was sitting with a cup of stimcaf, perusing a datapad. “Our new food synthesizer, courtesy of your Jedi friend, Chase. Be glad you weren’t here a couple of months ago.” Leo slapped a hand over his mouth and mimed retching.

“I got a cabin ready for you,” Piper spoke up. “In the starboard section, in back of the cargo hold.”

“Thanks,” Jason said.

“When you’re done stowing your gear, come up to the cockpit. You gotta meet the third member of the crew.”

“Third?” He shot Piper an inquisitive look.

She just shrugged. “You’ll see.”

The starboard cargo hold clearly hadn’t been used for hauling cargo in several years. It had been retrofitted into an armory and workshop. To the left of the door was a workbench. The exterior wall was covered with weapons lockers. To Jason’s right was an airspeeder, with a ventral hatch for quick deployment. At the hold’s rear was another doorway. Jason noted, with some interest, that the mechanism appeared to have multiple configurations. With some adjustment, it could be quickly modified to allow access only from the outside. A cell then, for transporting live bounties. Piper and Leo obviously didn’t have very many willing guests.

The cabin was small, but looked comfortable. A single bed, a chair bolted to the floor in front of a desk, and a small shelf for personal effects suggested it could be made homey with relative ease. Not actually having any personal effects, Jason didn’t really pay it any mind. Placing his bag in the footlocker at the end of his bunk, Jason made his way back out to the main hold. Piper was still reading, her cup now empty.

“When Leo’s done showing off,” she said without looking up, “we should go over everything we know before launch.”

“It’s five days to Kinyen,” Jason pointed out.

“Never too early to prepare,” Piper replied.

“True enough.”

_ Festus’  _ cockpit was small for a ship of its’ size; two seats in front for the pilot and copilot, with a third in the rear, to the right, for navigation. Leo was at the controls, performing preflight checks, but he turned when he heard Jason’s approach.

“Hey!” He greeted. “You all set up in the cage?”

“The cage?” asked Jason. “Oh, you mean my cabin.”

“Yep.” Leo nodded. “When we actually have to bring the dirtbags in, we shove ‘em in there. When we get a passenger--instant guest room! And if  _ they  _ get annoying, well…”

“Just wait until I go to sleep and lock me in?” Jason guessed.

“Exactly! Er, I mean, not you. You’d just cut through the door with that fancy laser sword.”

“Well,” Jason gave it a moment’s thought, “I’d probably use the Force to open it.”

“See, you’re good!” Leo seemed as pleased about his inability to trap Jason as Jason himself did. Then, his face seemed to get even brighter. “Right, you still gotta meet Festus!”

Leo wanted him to meet the ship? “I’m...in it?” Perhaps this was a pilot thing? Some spacers were said to be superstitious.

“Yeah, but he hasn’t said hello.” Jason was about to ask what, exactly, that meant, when Leo started banging on the bulkhead. “Hey!” he shouted, “Wake up! Say hi!”

Nothing happened, save Jason’s growing concern about his choice of travelling companions. “Leo, I’m not sure what you--”

“RRRRRGGGHHHHHRRRRRRRAAAAAAAA” A great roar tore through the cockpit’s comm system. Jason, taken aback, quickly abandoned Jedi decorum in favor of clamping his hands over his ears. Even Leo seemed surprised, and looked around them, irritated.

“Don’t gotta be an ass about it!” He yelled, when the sound finally abated. “ _ That’s _ Festus,” he explained to Jason. “He used to be a Basilisk war droid. When the Mandos tried to take Corellia during the war, he crashed near where we lived. I salvaged the behavioral core, and I’ve been moving into him bigger and better bodies ever since.” Leo smiled proudly, like he’d said something that wasn’t totally mad.

“You...put a war droid’s brain in your ship?” Jason asked incredulously. A very immature part of him thought it was very cool, but that part was outvoted by a sense of caution and self preservation.

“Eh, I reprogrammed him,” said Leo, defensive but proud. “Still having trouble with the vocabulator,” he gestured to the comm, “but you wouldn’t believe what that kind of brain can do for a ship.”

“Like crashing,” Piper chimed in from the entrance, “crashing has been known to happen.”

Leo crossed his arms sullenly. “That was  _ one time  _ , two years ago.”

“And I’ll be having bad dreams about it for another twenty.” Piper shot back.

Leo scowled. “I didn’t hear you complaining on Ord Mantell.”

“Okay!” Jason cut in, sensing an argument coming on, and wanting to head it off (conflict resolution was central to a Jedi’s service, after all). “Piper, you mentioned wanting to do a briefing?”

“Right,” she made for hold, and Jason and Leo followed. Piper activated the holoprojector in the center console. An image of their targets floated in the air above. “Jason, if you’d be so kind?”

“Certainly.” Jason stepped forward, bringing up a closeup of the Sith. “This is Asterion. We’ve never determined his exact species; he may hail from the Unknown Regions, or he may be the product of Sith Alchemy. What we do know is that he rose to prominence among the Sith over twenty years ago, leading raids on dozens of worlds on the Outer Rim. One of those worlds,” he called up a new image, a picture of a world from orbit, “was the planet Phaeda. Percy Jackson’s homeworld. Jackson’s family was killed, and his refugee convoy eventually put him into contact with the Jedi.”

Master Chiron himself had told Jason the story: A young boy, strong in the Force and wracked with grief. Twelve was considered by most to be far too old to begin Jedi training, far too old to unlearn any number of habits and behaviors that conflicted with the Code, but the danger of such a strong presence left alone had been too great. On his own, Jackson was at grave risk of succumbing to the Dark Side, and Chiron had convinced him to turn his talents toward protecting others. And it had worked--or so they’d all thought.

He continued. “They met again two years ago, when Kronos led a force to try and destroy the Jedi Temple, while the Order was distracted by the attack on Thyferra. Asterion was reported dead in that attack, but if Knight Chase is looking for him…”

“You think she’s helping her boyfriend get a little payback?” Leo asked.

“There’s no indication their friendship was romantic,” said Jason, “but as Knight Chase isn’t here to explain herself, we can’t rule out the possibility that she remains in contact with Jackson.”

“He could be bait,” Piper suggested. “You said Jackson dropped off months ago.”

Jason nodded. “He’s been missing ever since the Denon murders, five months ago.” Fifty-five people dead, of wounds inflicted by a lightsaber. Jackson was the only Jedi on the planet at the time, and he’d vanished without a trace the day after the bodies were discovered.

“Right. But Annabeth was still around. You said she went dark  _ after  _ talking to us. We’re assuming Jackson’s going after this guy, what if she’s assuming the same thing?”

“We’re not assuming,” Jason corrected, “we’re following up.”

Piper raised her hands. “All I’m saying is, I'm a pretty good judge of character, and ‘pals around with mass murderers’ isn’t the impression I got from her.”

“Annabeth Chase is a Jedi. She’s perfectly capable of hiding her feelings. When we find her, then we’ll know what she’s up to.” Jason wasn’t sure where Piper got off speculating about a Jedi’s motives. “May I continue?”

“By all means, Master Jedi,” Piper drawled.

“Thank you.” Jason turned back to the console. “As I was saying, Asterion’s body wasn’t one of those recovered after the Sith at the Temple were defeated. He landed with the first wave, well before Kronos arrived to push the defenders back. It’s possible that one of his followers retrieved him and got medical attention.”

“Do Sith do that?” asked Leo. "Help each other, I mean."

Jason shrugged. “It depends on the Sith. If someone thought there was more to gain by saving Asterion than by letting him die…”

“Real team players, huh?”

“Like I said, it depends,” Jason cautioned him, “but you'd have to be on their side to begin with. If there  _ is  _ a Sith Lord waiting for us at the end of this, don’t count on any valor or mercy.” It was the same trap many Jedi had fallen into over the years; using the same lightsabers didn’t make the Sith similar to them. “Now, if your sources are correct, then he was last sighted at Kerma Station, an orbital habitat in the Kinyen system. You said he may not have gone to the planet itself?”

“No, and it makes sense,” said Piper. “Gran communities on the surface are in close quarters, and this guy doesn’t seem like the type to blend in. But those stations get a lot of through traffic. Nobody would look twice at an alien up there. There should be a record of his ship, though.”

“And if he’s still there?” Leo asked, “How do we play this?”

Piper shook her head. "By all accounts, he's already left. If he was ever there at all."

“It's all we have to go on. I'll stay in travelling clothes until we know for sure. If he's still got eyes on the station, I don't want to give myself away. Piper, I need you to check with the Port Authority, see if you can find any details about Asterion’s visit. If he was there, I wanna know where he came from, and where he was going.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” she said with a confident smirk. “What about you two?”

“We’re gonna go the best source of information on that or any planet.”

*******

“Jedi, you’re never picking the destination again.”

“In my defense, how was I to know the station cantina would be...this?”

‘ _ This  _ ’ was a small eatery, eight meters by twelve, lit by aging fluorescents, and populated by a single droid cook and two tired-looking Chev spacers arguing about the price of fuel in the sector and whether or not they should have tried their luck on Yag’Dhul instead. The spacers had been there only a few hours before  _ Festus  _ had docked at Kerma Station, and the droid didn’t seem to have been programmed for conversation.

In short, they had nothing.

“Man,” Leo said, poking at the alleged juma juice he’d been served, “Piper’s gonna be so damn smug about this.”

Jason dumped some sweetener into his tea. “She can be as smug as she wants,” he said, “if she’s had more luck than us.” Not like that would be hard. Buzzing nexus of social activity, this was  _ not _ . He tasted his drink and winced.

"'Luck.' All she's gotta do is bat her eyelashes and pump out some pheromones, of course she's gonna get luckier than us." Leo snorted. "I hope the dock officer's a damn Gamorrean. Serve her right."

“Oh, I don't know” a voice behind him said, “you may be surprised at your luck.”

A figure dropped suddenly, almost as if from nowhere, into the chair to Jason’s left. He was human, or close enough to one that Jason couldn’t tell. He looked to be a couple of years younger than Jason or Leo, but the hood pulled low over his face made it hard to know for sure. He wore dark clothes, and the only skin on display was the lower half of his face. He was pale, and his mouth was pulled into a slight, wry smile. There was no hint of danger, no flash of warning in the Force, but Jason felt uneasy at the sight of this stranger, and was suddenly all too aware of how difficult it might be to draw his lightsaber in this position.

“The one you’re looking for has come and gone,” the youth said, “but I might still be able to help you.”

“And who do we have to thank for this ‘help’?” Leo asked, his hand twitching. Jason hoped he could resist the urge to go for his blaster.

“Someone with no love for the man you came to find,” the stranger replied. “When I learned somebody else on the station was asking after Asterion, I thought I could lend a hand.” The boy turned to face Jason, his eyes still concealed to unnerving effect. “You keep interesting company for a Jedi, don't you, Jason Grace?” Across the table, Leo bristled, as though ‘interesting’ was some kind of curse.

Now the alarms were going off in Jason’s head. “How do you know my name?”

“Asterion and his crew have already left the system,” said the boy, ignoring Jason’s question. “You aren’t the one he expected to come here. There are others who have his attention.” He smiled. “But you already knew that.”

“You're awfully well informed,” Jason said evenly.

“I have my resources. As you have yours. In times like these, it's always a good idea to keep in touch with old friends, no matter how far away.” The boy turned to Leo. “Alderaan, for example.”

“Alright that's enough!” Leo snapped, his voice harder than Jason had ever heard. He leaned forward, and Jason got the sneaking suspicion that the other man's hand was at his holster. Whoever was Alderaan, the mention had clearly struck a nerve. “Cut the shavit and tell us who you are.”

The boy tilted his head. “Let's just say...I'm someone who knows a thing or two about  _ ghosts  _ .” He waved at them, still smiling like the loth-cat that swallowed the edgehawk. “See you around.”

Then he vanished into thin air.

Leo swore, drawing his blaster as he rose. Jason reached out with the Force, but found nothing. “He’s gone,” he said, “put that away before somebody calls security.”

The bounty hunter didn’t look convinced. “That schutta was using a stealth field generator,” He growled. “He could still be here.”

“He  _ isn't  _ ,” Jason insisted. “There's no hiding from the Force. He's--where are you going?”

“To the ship,” Leo replied on his way out the door, not turning to address him directly. “You go get Piper. We're leaving.”


	3. They're Not Baby Holos, But They'll Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper fills Jason in on some backstory, to her poor, put-upon partner's chagrin.

He caught Piper coming out of the docking office. She looked pleased with herself, until she saw Jason. Then she just looked confused.

“Hey. Did something happen? Where's Leo?”

“Prepping the ship, and not happy about it. You know anybody on Alderaan?” He quickly filled her in on what had happened on the eatery. Piper’s eyes widened at the mention of these ‘friends’.

“There's a few people we know,” Piper told him as they made their way down to the airlock. “One in particular would have Leo upset like this.”

“Family?”

“Sort of. It's… complicated. This mystery man, did he sound like he was making a threat?”

Jason thought back. The boy had claimed he was lending them a hand, but he'd seemed to find the situation amusing. “He sounded like he was making a joke,” he told her.

“The next best thing, in other words.” Piper frowned. “I'll make some calls to my contacts on Alderaan. Leo's probably doing that right now, actually.”

“What about you? Did you have any luck tracking Asterion’s ship?”

Piper brightened at that. “Yes, actually I did. He was here a few days while his ship was undergoing repairs. I didn't get his destination but…” she held up a datacard, “...I did charm the dock officer into giving me a readout of the ship, including the transponder code. He gets close, we should be able to identify and track him.”

Jason grinned. “Way to go.” He'd rest a little easier knowing that they now knew what to look for. “Oh, hey,” he remembered, “that dock officer wasn’t a Gamorrean by any chance, was he?”

“No,” Piper blinked in slight confusion, “she was a Twi’lek. Why?”

“No reason.” Leo would be so disappointed.

“Anyway, I looked over the files before I left.” Piper called down Festus’s loading ramp. “He’s travelling in a CR15 corvette, _Labyrinthian_. The dock officer told me that she noticed damage from a recent firefight. She said their engine took a hit. If it was Chase or Jackson, they mean business.”

“Assuming they’re still alive.” Not a pleasant thought, but one he had to entertain. Asterion had survived, and Sith Lords weren’t known for leaving a foe breathing if they could help it. The loading ramp descended, and the pair made their way aboard. Jason was about to call out for Leo, when he heard the other man’s voice through the bulkhead.

“...just resist the urge to be yourself for five minutes and listen to what somebody’s telling you?”

“Uh-oh,” Piper said quietly, grabbing Jason by the arm. “I was right. He called Octavian. Let’s, uh, not go in there just yet.” She pulled him away from the hold door and over to the starboard section.

“Who’s Octavian? And why do we have to wait here?” Jason was starting to get worried. Leo had obviously been worried about somebody, but why wouldn’t he want Jason and Piper there when he checked in?

“I said ‘complicated’ before, right?” Piper asked him as she activated the workbench and started to examine her blaster. “Well, in this particular case it’s more like ‘irritating.’ For me. They’ll yell at each other for a while, then Leo will spend ten or fifteen minutes in his cabin, and then he’ll pretend nothing ever happened at all.” She rolled her eyes. “Men. You Jedi don't do relationships, right?”

“Attachments of that sort are frowned upon, yes.”

“On behalf of the friends who would have to play along with that nonsense, I thank you.”

“You're…welcome?” The more time he spent with these people, the less Jason felt like he understood them. “I thought Zeltrons were devoted to the idea of love?”

“Half-Zeltron,” Piper corrected him irritably, “and it's more like ‘joy’ than ‘love’. And what those two have going on is anything but joyous. If I were a full-fledged empath like my mother, I'd have shot both of them years ago.”

“How long has this…” Relationship? Affair? Cold war? “...situation been going on?” Perhaps Jason could mediate; help Leo and this other person find harmony.

“Well, it was about four years…” Piper counted something off on her fingers, “...yeah, it was the Kuat job, so coming up on four years now.” She sighed wistfully. “Leo and I had just gone into business for ourselves. Didn't have a clue what we were doing. The Kuati senator had a bounty out on some pirates who'd stolen a shuttle from her family. We tracked the thieves to this chop shop on Desevro. The shuttle was long gone, of course, but it turns out, that wasn't the only senator they'd robbed.”

“Politically conscious starship thieves?”

“No, just showing off. ‘The Spectacular Stoll Brothers,’ they called themselves.” Piper laughed. “Nice guys, actually. Didn't even get mad when we arrested them. Anyway, we get them back to Kuat, collect the reward, and off we go. Simple, right? Well, not exactly.

“We're getting ready to go to hyperspace, when this ship intercepts us at the edge of the system. A ship from the Alderaanian Diplomatic Corps. Apparently, Senator Ulgo sent one of his interns to nab the thieves, only we got there first. And he wasn’t happy when we told him they’d have to wait until the Kuati were done. He starts ranting at us over the comm, this skinny kid no older than us, going on and on about about our meddling. So…” She gave a big, dramatic shrug, “...Leo shot at him.”

“He fired on a senator’s ship?” Jason was incredulous. Surely, Leo wasn’t that mad?

“A warning shot,” Piper clarified, “to shut him up. It didn’t even graze his shields. But he freaked out, and fired back, and then the KSF showed up, and we all spent the night in the brig. They let us out in the morning, and escorted us to opposite edges of the system.”

“And they just...kept in touch? After all that?” Jason could not claim to be any sort of expert, but that did not sound like a solid foundation for a relationship.

Piper grinned. “Oh no. In fact, they didn’t meet again for a year after that. One night, we were on Coruscant for a job. Leo was getting drunk at a bar in the Senate District on the client’s cred, and Octavian was doing the same thing at the very same bar.” She threw her head back and cackled like a holovid villain. “You should have heard the scream when they woke up and recognized each other. Come to think of it,” She looked thoughtful for a moment, “if you were on the planet at the time, you probably did. But they kept running into each other by _'coincidence'_ , and now I’m expected to pretend I don’t know what’s going on.”

Jason took a moment to process this story. “...Piper?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re right. Relationships are nonsense.”

Piper grinned. “Welcome to the team, Jedi.” Then the dull roar of hydraulics hummed through the ship. Leo had left the main hold, and was coming down the corridor. Piper brought a finger to her lips and winked at Jason.

“ _...miserable conceited little...show him ‘senseless waste of Holonet power…_ ” A string of Huttese curse words followed, just barely audible over the hiss of the port side hatch opening.

Piper grinned even wider. “See? Guess that means he’s OK. I figure we’ve got…” she glanced down at her chrono, “...ten minutes before he’s done. I’ll see if I can’t raise my friends on Alderaan while he’s busy. Maybe it’s nothing, but in my experience, disappearing men don’t usually deal in ‘nothing.’” She beckoned him to follow. “You head up to the cockpit. Get us ready to take off.”

“Is that OK?” Jason was technically just a passenger, after all, and he didn’t want to trespass in Leo’s domain. Pilots were protective of their ships by nature.

“Yeah, it’s cool,” Piper waved him off. “Be quick about it. I wanna see if we can take lover boy by surprise. Serve him right.”

*******

 _Festus_ ’ cockpit setup was thankfully still pretty close to factory default, and the killer droid in charge of it all proved to be surprisingly helpful. It didn’t take Jason long at all to interpret the droid’s grunts at their most basic level. Leo and Piper no doubt understood it better, but for now ‘yes’ and ‘no’ would suffice.

In short order, he’d gotten departure clearance, and guided the ship out of the docking bay and into space. So quickly, in fact, that he’d managed to achieve Piper’s goal of catching Leo with his pants down (metaphorically, thank the Force). The man had a sore look on his face when he emerged, glaring at Piper but saying nothing.

It was not a level of tact his partner shared. “So glad you could tear yourself away,” she crowed.

Leo just scowled even harder. “Piss off, McLean.”

“Ah, I love you too, _pateesa_.” Jason thought Piper would make a terrible Jedi, but she was exactly the right kind of friend.

“Did you reach your contact?” Jason asked her. Piper shook her head.

“It looks like there’s some interference. Didn't seem to have any trouble reaching Coruscant, though," she said with another amused glance at her partner, "so that's _interesting_. Could be solar flares, or protons bursts. Could just be a karked up beacon between here and there. Either way,” she sighed, “it looks like we’re headed to Alderaan.”

“I’ll plot a course,” Leo offered.

“Anybody in particular we’re looking up?” Jason asked.

“Well,” Piper replied, “we know…” she cast a look at Leo, “...two people on Alderaan. Well enough to call them ‘friends’, at least. As luck would have it, they should be close together. One’s a security officer for Aldera Spaceport, conveniently enough. The other is a master jeweler in the city. I’ll try the comm again when we get closer, but even if it doesn’t work, they’re easy to find.”

“The guy on the station seemed to think these people could tell us something.” Jason didn’t believe in coincidences. There was only the Force, and the plans made by those who lived within it.

“It’s possible.” Piper said. “Hazel and Frank are...weird.”

“‘Weird’ how?”

“Well…” Piper seemed to be looking for the right words, “...Hazel’s always been a little evasive about, but sometimes I think it’s possible that she’s your kind of weird.”

“You think she might be Force-sensitive?” Jason asked. That was a new wrinkle.

“Maybe,” Leo said. “She’s got good instincts for what’s about to happen. Like, scary good, sometimes.”

“And she’s always been secretive about her past,” added Piper. “I know she’s not from Alderaan originally, but that’s about it.

Jason frowned. “You never told me you knew any Force-sensitives.”

“It’s a big galaxy,” Leo pointed out, “and we’ve met a lot of people. Besides, I thought you Jedi were only interested in kids?”

“I didn’t say I wanted to recruit her, but it would have been good to know!” Jason said indignantly. “Think about it! A Force-sensitive that you know personally, when we’re looking for a Sith Lord and two missing Jedi Knights? That doesn’t seem the least bit interesting to you?”

“You did catch that ‘big galaxy’ bit, right?” Piper asked him. “We’ve been to a lot of worlds, and met a whole lot of people on them. A lot of very strange people. I don’t necessarily think ‘Jedi’ whenever anybody does something out of the ordinary.”

Jason felt himself make a very undignified face. “What part of ‘precognition’ doesn’t make you think ‘Jedi’?”

“Pretty sure she just answered that,” said Leo. “If you want us to list off everybody we’ve ever met who can do the impossible, we’ll be here a long time. Or we can just wait to get to Alderaan and you can maybe meet one of those people yourself.”

“Fine,” Jason sighed, “but I’d appreciate it if, in the future, you told me about this sort of thing when it came up instead of running off to…” he glanced at Piper and cracked a smile, “...meditate.” Piper had said he was part of the team, and it seemed a shame to let this opportunity pass him by.

If Leo’s face was any indication, he’d hit the mark. “Oh, good,” he groaned, “we got the funny Jedi.” He turned toward the cockpit. “Well, while you two are joking, I’m gonna set course for Alderaan.”

So they were a little rough around the edges. Jason couldn’t help feeling like he was fitting in nicely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you thought I wasn't gonna shove my rarepair OTP in here, I'm sad to say you were mistaken. I promise there will be action soon.


	4. Run, Commenor Run!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason gets a very urgent wake up call as the crew nears Alderaan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Rogue One_ is out digitally today, so I knew if I didn't post this now I'd fall down a rabbit hole.

_“Jedi!”_

Sleep deserted Jason as his face met the durasteel deck.

He looked around himself as awareness returned. The ship was shaking every few moments. _‘Something’s hitting the shields.’_ They were under attack.

_“Jedi! Gates of hell, is he still sleeping?”_ Leo’s frustrated voice echoed through the tinny speakers of intercom.

“I’m here!” he shouted, reaching for his pants.

_“Finally! Get to the turrets, we’ve got trouble!”_ Jason left his shirt behind, deciding that survival was more important than being fully dressed, and ran out. The ship continued to shake with weapons fire, but it didn’t seem like anything had penetrated the shields yet. He reached the ladder to the turret and noted that the lower was already occupied, Piper bringing her gun to bear on the enemy. Climbing up to the dorsal turret, he got a look at their foe.

It was a last-gen _Interdictor V_ -class cruiser. It had been favored by the Republic’s anti smuggling operations before being adopted by the Sith during the last war. Jason could recall the specs even in his recently-ended sleep: 600 meters long, 7 mid-range turbolaser batteries, 10 point defense cannons, and an Interceptor fighter complement of 36. Roughly a dozen of those fighters were bearing down on them right now.

_Festus_ shook as shots bounced off the shields. _“We got caught right as we passed Tepasi.”_ Leo noted. _“It could be pirates, but…”_ he clearly doubted it, and Jason shared the concern; it was highly unlikely for pirates to park themselves right on the Commenor Run, where any ship they brought down into realspace was just as likely to be a Republic warship as it was a defenseless merchant. No, this felt like a trap.

“Leo, is the mass shadow still in place?” he asked as he swung the turret around toward the nearest fighter, disintegrating it in a burst of flame.

_“Yeah,”_ Leo responded from the cockpit as he maneuvered the ship through the laser fire., _“we’re not going anywhere with that thing online!”_

“Can you get us closer?” Another fighter flew into his sights. It didn't fly out again.

_“Can I_ what! _?”_

“ _Interdictor-V_ s can't raise shields while they're holding us here. Target the gravity well generator.”

“You sure about this?” Piper asked apprehensively. “At that range…”

“I'll handle the point defenses,” he assured her, “you concentrate on keeping those fighters off us.”

Leo swore in Old Corellian. _“Hang on to something,”_ he called, _“I'm taking us in!”_

The cruiser quickly filled Jason’s field of vision as Leo moved the ship into weapons range. Four of her close-range cannons were clustered around a bulbous protrusion on the ventral-side hull: the gravity well generator, a devious little machine that distorted hyperspace and tricked navicomputers into thinking they were in close orbit around a planet. As long as it was operational, they were trapped. _‘Us, and anybody else that blunders into this trap.’_ It was vital that they disable this ship; the Commenor Run was one of the most heavily trafficked hyperroutes in the Core, and it was only a matter of time before a hapless civilian ship was caught here with them.

Jason took aim, and one of the cannons vanished in a cloud of flame. As it disappeared beneath them, he felt a cold flash of murderous intent through the Force. He was suddenly very aware of the Dark Side, and its strength on the vessel before him. He'd been hoping these were just well-equipped raiders. Clearly, that wasn't the case. There was a Force-sensitive on that cruiser, and it very badly wanted them dead.

“Heads up!” Leo called, “They’re sending out another wave! We need to hurry this up!” Jason brought his turret around to see that, yes, another six fighters were closing in. As Leo brought Festus around for another pass at the generator, all three of the crew brought their weapons to bear, swiftly reducing that number to three. That left eleven in flight, with another eighteen aboard the cruiser, if memory served. He took aim at the generator, but his shot went wide, leaving a black streak across the hull but doing no useful damage. He managed to adjust, however, and took out another of the defense guns, leaving them a wide opening to try again.

Before they could take advantage, the whole ship suddenly lost speed, and Jason was thrown to the side with bone-rattling force. He briefly feared that they’d collided with one of the fighters, but the truth was soon apparent, and much worse.

_“Tractor beam!”_

Jason swore under his breath. Despite Leo’s best efforts and the full power of their engines, _Festus_ had slowed nearly to a crawl--and the remaining fighters were quickly moving to take advantage. The ship’s position was frozen, and he had no line of fire to either the generator or the tractor beam emitter. He blew one of the fighters to bits, but the rest were pounding the shields with everything they had; they couldn’t possibly last much longer, if Festus’ frustrated growls were anything to go by.

“More fighters inbound!” Piper called out. “We need to get moving now!”

_“I’m working on--oh stang!”_ The ship was shaken again, much rougher than before. _“Shields are down!”_

With a sigh, Jason brought the turret around again. The Jedi Code called for calm reflection when a Jedi saw his death coming. Perhaps it was inappropriate to spend what he now knew to be his last moments fighting--to die with aggression in his heart was perilously close to the Dark Side--but Jason found he didn’t quite care. These Sith would spread their hatred and destruction to countless others after he was gone. Making sure there were a few less of them in the galaxy seemed like a worthy use of his final actions in this world. He fixed his sights on one fighter…

...and watched in confusion as it exploded without him doing anything. He had barely a moment to wonder what had happened as surprise rippled through the Force--both from Jason’s companions, the starfighter pilots, and, with a spark of rage as well, from the dark presence aboard the Interdictor.

_“New contact!”_

A ship flew into Jason’s field of view. It was narrower than _Festus_ ; a sleek personal transport with a gleaming, bronze-colored hull. The newcomer darted in between the incoming interceptors, gracefully dodging their laserfire, ignoring the fighters and closing in on the cruiser. A moment later, _Festus_ lurched forward, the tractor beam now gone. Leo wasted no time. With their freedom of movement restored, he brought the ship around again, giving Jason a look at the cruiser.

Whatever their mysterious rescuer had done, it had taken a toll on the Interdictor. It’s port-side hull was aflame, and the tractor beam emitter had been completely destroyed, along with two of the long-range batteries and every point defense gun on that side of the ship. As for the newcomer, they were flying circles through and around the surviving fighters, blowing them away one by one with almost casual ease, and distracting them from _Festus_ altogether.

“Leo,” Jason called out, “now’s our chance!”

They zoomed toward the cruiser at high speed. Dodging a burst of fire from the only remaining cannon, the ship was now in the perfect position. With the generator growing ever larger before him, it was the simplest thing in the universe for Jason to line up his shot. As it exploded, so too did the rage coming off of the dark presence. But its fury was impotent; the cruiser was crippled, the fighter escort was all but gone, and with the tractor beam and gravity well generator reduced to so much flaming wreckage, there was nothing holding _Festus_ here any longer.

As they broke away, Jason could see their benefactor moving to do the same. “Leo, get a scan of that ship!” He wanted to know who they had to thank for the rescue--and how they knew to show up when they did.

_“Way ahead of you.”_

Clear of the cruiser, and the fighters’ debris field, Leo quickly reoriented the ship to resume their previous course. Jason watched as the transport accelerated and disappeared into hyperspace. A few seconds later, _Festus_ did as well. The stars smeared across his view as the hyperdrive brought them past lightspeed and into the safety of the post-dimensional realm.

*******

“So, any guesses as to what the hell just happened to us?” Leo asked as the crew gathered in the main hold.

“Those were no pirates,” Jason asserted, “there was a Sith on that ship--and it was waiting for us.”

Piper looked concerned. “You’re sure?”

Jason nodded. “I felt it in the Force. A powerful darkness.”

“What about the second ship?” Leo brought up the scan on the holoprojector. “That was some timing. Five more seconds and we’d’ve been dust and shrapnel.”

Piper gazed at the projection. “I don’t recognize the model,” she said. “It looks a little bit like one of SoroSuub’s yachts, but heavily modified.”

“Definitely some aftermarket parts,” Leo concurred. “Those engines weren’t leisure-grade. Weapons, either. I was monitoring the output; this guy was punching way above his weight.”

“Your Force let you get anything off the pilot?” asked Piper.

Jason shook his head. “Once I felt the presence on the cruiser, it was hard to sense anything else,” he explained. “It’s like light pollution in a city--a hatred so bright it drowns out everything else. The second ship could have been flown by a droid, for all I know.”

“Eh, no droid flies like that,” Leo said dismissively. A low growl crackled through the com system, and Leo held his hands up. “Present company excepted, naturally.” He appeared thoughtful for a moment. “Still probably not a droid; you’d need a really good one to outfly fighters like that, souped-up engine or no, and those don’t grow on trees.”

Piper grimaced. “Which brings us to our second issue.” She called up a recording of the Interdictor. “Bad guys in the Core Worlds, flying military warships, and flying them well. We should notify the Republic. They’ll be long gone by the time a patrol gets out there, but there may be something in the wreckage.”

“I’ll do that,” Jason offered. “I need to report this to the Council as well. The Masters need to know about Sith lurking on our doorstep. What’s the closest inhabited star system?”

“Cirius,” Leo supplied. “We’re about two hours out from Caamas. No real fleet presence, but there should be a ship or two there to check things out.”

“Sounds like a plan, but…” Piper grinned at him, “...you should probably get dressed first. Unless you wanna put on a show for the Jedi Council.”

Jason looked down, and blushed. He’d forgotten that he was bare chested, and he wasn’t wearing any shoes either. “Um, yeah.” He turned and made his way to his cabin, ignoring Leo’s wolf-whistle as he went.

*******

Once he was fully dressed, Jason returned to the hold. Piper was up in the cockpit, keeping an eye on things while Leo examined the ship’s systems for any damage sustained during the firefight.

Compiling the sensor recordings, he transmitted a brief incident report to Caamas, along with a request for investigation. The Republic would no doubt be alarmed to hear of Sith activity in the core, and Jason imagined the Commenor Run would be seeing an increase in Navy activity in the coming days.

That done, he keyed in the hypertransceiver code for the Jedi Temple. It took a few moments to establish a connection, but his patience was rewarded as Master Chiron’s form materialized above the projector.

“Jason,” the Master greeted, “this is unexpected. Do you have news for us?”

Jason bowed before beginning. “I do, Master, but not the news I’d hoped to give.”

“Has something happened?”

“Yes, but...I’m not sure what to make of it.” Jason filled the Master in on what had happened since leaving the capital: their stop at Kinyen, the cryptic boy in the cantina, Asterion’s brief stay at the station, and now this attack in the very heart of Republic space. Chiron absorbed this news solemnly.

“A Sith warship, here in Core,” he said gravely. “The situation is far more dire than we anticipated. And this third party...you said you scanned the ship that came to your aid?”

Jason nodded. “I’ll send you the data. I’ve already forwarded a copy to the nearest Republic force. We have information about Lord Asterion’s ship as well.”

“Send it to me. Our people will be on the lookout. If any of these ships appear again, we’ll find out. And we’ll compare the third ship to every model recorded in the Archives. It may be known to us already.” Chiron stroked his beard pensively. “This boy on Kerma Station--what was your impression of him?”

“Hard to read, Master,” Jason admitted. “He said he was ‘no friend of Asterion...’”

“...which doesn’t necessarily mean ‘a friend of the Jedi.’” Chiron finished for him. “This mission to Alderaan may have been a trap; a pretense to lure you to the young man’s allies, so you could be destroyed.’”

“It could have been,” Jason agreed, “...but my instincts tell me otherwise. The bounty hunters say their contact on Alderaan may be more than she seems.” He told Chiron what he knew of Hazel Levesque, the alleged Force-sensitive jeweler. “Have you ever heard of this woman?” he asked when he finished.

Chiron shook his head. “I don’t know the name, but that’s hardly surprising. The war was so disruptive that many Force-sensitives would have gone undiscovered in the chaos. Yours was a regrettably small generation, I’m afraid.”

Jason nodded grimly. He’d been lucky enough to be born on Coruscant; many other children across the galaxy had been cut off from the Jedi. At best, their talents were undeveloped enough to escape the attentions of the Sith. At worst, they were now servants of the Dark Side. “That’s what has me worried. Leo and Piper told me that they don’t know much about this woman’s past. Anything is possible.”

“And what of these hunters?” asked Chiron. “You’ve travelled with them for some time now, are you sure of their intentions?”

“I don’t sense any deception. They’re after money, but they don’t seem like the type to collaborate with the Sith.” Perhaps it was his burgeoning friendship, but he couldn’t see any darkness when he looked at Piper and Leo. A Jedi rejected the profit motive, but it wasn’t always a true failing in regular sentients; the darkness held no more sway over these people than it did over anybody else.

“Your judgement has always been sound,” Chiron said approvingly. “It has lead you deeper into this plot. Your allies’ connection to this woman on Alderaan is a sign from the Force, I’m sure of it. Keep pulling at the thread.”

“I will, Master.” Jason bowed again. “I’ll contact you as soon as I know something.”

“I’ll do the same, Jason. May the Force be with you.”

The hologram flickered out, and Jason felt his shoulders sag. The last couple of hours abruptly caught up with him, and he moved in the direction of the cabin off the starboard hold. Hopefully any attackers would be polite enough to wait until he’d gotten some sleep this time.


	5. The Red Wire? The Blue Wire?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One lead disappears, another pops up, an old friend makes a reappearance, and Leo never does get lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally going to be a filler set-up chapter, with the real plot happening in chapter six, which I hoped to get up tomorrow. But I didn't like the way five flowed by itself, so I Frankensteined them together. The upside is: oversized chapter!

Alderaan was a world of rare beauty.

Despite her status as one of humanity’s first colonies, Alderaan had relatively little in the way of urban sprawl, particularly when compared to the likes of Coruscant or Duro. On this world, unlike so many of the other Core Founders, civilization was limited to a handful of great cities, with the rest of the population making their way in smaller townships and numerous solitary homesteads, separated by rolling hills, dense forests, immense mountain ranges, and all manner of lakes and rivers.

Fortunately for Jason, this concentration of the inhabitants made it easy to find the people he and his companions had come to see.

_“Freighter_ Festus _,”_ the comm crackled, _“This is Aldera Spaceport Control. Please state the nature of your visit.”_

Leo prodded at his console. “Aldera Control, this is the _Festus_. We’re here in pursuit of information regarding a publicly posted bounty. Requesting permission to land.”

_“Permission granted,_ Festus _. Proceed to docking bay 77 along the prescribed route. Welcome to Alderaan.”_

Leo smiled at Jason. “First time to the planet?”

“Yes,” Jason admitted, looking out at the magnificent view stretching out beneath them as they passed into the atmosphere.

“Remind me to take you to this dive I know in the Artisans’ Quarter.” The pilot grinned lecherously. “It’s an eye-opener.”

“Business before pleasure, Leo,” Piper chimed in from the navigation console. She let out a frustrated sigh. “So far, all I’m getting from these guys is ‘Officer Zhang is unavailable.’ I tried ringing them at home too--nothing. Guys, I’m starting to think something’s really going on.”

“Only starting?” Leo asked. “I figured something was up like, twelve sectors ago.”

“It was the warship that tipped me off,” Jason chimed in.

Piper gave them a flat look. “Ha. Ha.” She turned back to her console and sighed. “It looks like this is gonna be a walking job.”

*******

Like many Coreward planetary capitals, Aldera was a gleaming beacon of prosperity. Situated on an island in a picturesque lake, and watched over by the majestic Triplehorn Mountains, the city seemed to call out to visitors ‘Welcome to paradise!’ The spaceport hugged the shoreline, linked to the city proper by a wide bridge. Towering blocks of docking pads and hangar bays sprawled out across more than four kilometers, all in service of the thousands of travelers and traders that flocked to the planet on a daily basis.

After landing and confirming that, no, Frank Zhang was not on duty, hadn’t been for some time, and wasn’t expected back any time soon, the three speedered into Aldera. At Frank and Hazel’s apartment they spoke to the superintendent, a cheerful Rodian woman of some years, who told them that the couple had been away for several weeks now, and that she was pretty sure the absence was connected to Hazel’s job and perhaps they should try there.

All of which brought them to the Panteer Plaza Shopping Center, fifty-four floors (and six more below ground) of commerce. Taking the turbolift to Level 19, they immediately saw the brightly colored but tasteful signage advertising Heart of Gold (“Alderaan’s Finest, Two Years Running!”) at the far end of the floor.

“So how did you meet this woman?” Jason asked as they strolled down the promenade.

“It was a couple of years ago,” said Piper, “right when Hazel was getting ready to open the shop. We were tracking this black market organ dealer, selling bad hearts to desperate people all over the sector.”

“Ziben Zhug,” Leo recalled with a grimace, “real piece of work.”

“He was running a medical supply business here under a false name. When we showed up to ask around, Hazel told us she’d been checking on the guy too. Said she ‘had a bad feeling about it’.” Piper shrugged. “At the time, I figured he just gave her the creeps, but it turns out, Zhug had his clinic up and running behind a false wall in his stockroom. We never would have found it without her.”

Leo grinned. “You should have seen the look on his face when he came in to find us waiting for him.”

“So he makes a break for it, takes a leap over the railing to avoid the stairs–”

“–and Lady Lunatic over here follows,” Leo cut in.

“Yes I did,” Piper said proudly, “and it was a good thing, too, because he had a speeder parked on the same pad as us. So there we are, Zhug in front trying to reach his ship before we can, taking shots at me, me chasing after him trying to nail him with an ion blast, and Leo and Hazel bringing up the rear in her ride.

“We make it all the way to the spaceport, and they still don’t have the place locked down even after Leo called to warn them. They do have security officers there to meet him, but he practically mows them over, drives right into the terminal.”

“So you went after him?” Jason guessed.

“Stopped to pick up one of the officers, but yeah. They had guards on Zhug’s ship, but he was better with a blaster rifle than you’d expect from a man of science. He’d already reached the cockpit and raised the landing gear when we caught up. We got a tow line on him, but it was a speeder versus a starship. It was either let go or get pulled into space. So of course, I’m gonna let go, right? But then it turns out this guy--” Piper slung her arm around Leo, “--wasn’t following us anymore.”

“Hazel had ‘an idea’,” said Leo.

“And it was a good one!” Piper crowed. “The look on Zhug’s face when _Festus_ parked right on top of him…” she sighed happily. “Zhug was going nowhere, and after that it didn’t me long to force my way inside. I hit him with a gas grenade, and it was payday.”

“Frank-–the officer Piper grabbed-–took Hazel’s statement.” Leo said, smiling. “A couple weeks later, he took her out for dinner.”

“And they’ve been together ever since,” Piper finished. “Wedding’s next year, they said.” They turned a corner and the jewelry shop came into view. Mannequins in the window displays showed off all manner of rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. There were even pieces for a number of nonhuman species, from jeweled sleeves for Twi’lek lekku, to Zabrak horn decorations.

The front door slid open and Jason took in the sales floor. A number of cases were spaciously placed, with the more expensive items behind transparisteel. A human couple, a young man and woman, were looking over some rings with their backs to Jason, Piper, and Leo. From behind the main counter, an alien of a species Jason was unfamiliar with stepped forward. From the waist up he could have passed for human, if he covered the small horns growing out of his head. His legs, however, were furry and hooved. The only clothing he wore was a smock, upon which was embroidered the name ‘Don’.

“Hello!" the man bellowed, "and welcome to...” his face fell as he got a good look at them, “...oh, it’s just you guys.”

“Thanks Don,” Leo drawled, “your joy is overwhelming.”

“Eh, I didn’t mean it like that. Hazel told me to expect you two days ago, is all.” Don shrugged. “I wasn’t sure you were coming.”

“She told you that we’d be coming?” Jason asked him.

Don just shrugged again. “Knew somebody was coming. Hazel had one of those feelings of hers, y’know.”

“Do you know where she is?” asked Piper. “We’ve been trying to reach her for days now.”

“She’s on a procurement trip,” said Don, “went offworld for a shipment of vertex crystals for a client’s commission.”

“She couldn’t have them delivered?” Leo asked.

Don waved him off. “Client was real particular about the color, I guess. Only place Hazel found enough of what she needed was on Nar Shaddaa. Not exactly a ‘delivery’ kind of place. Good thing she’s got that boyfriend of hers with her. Hazel’s tough as durasteel, but a little more muscle never hurts, especially out there.”

“You said she knew we’d be here,” said Jason, “did she leave anything for us? A message, maybe?” There was a reason they were here, he was certain of it.

“All she told me was that some old friends–-that would be you guys–-would be coming around, and that I should tell you where she was going and what she was doing.”

“That’s it?” Leo asked incredulously.

“That’s it,” Don said with a final shrug. “She should be back in a couple of weeks, if it helps.”

It didn't. As the three left the shop, the questions piled up in Jason’s head. “Something isn’t right here,” he declared as they returned to the lift. They were supposed to find something here; not another cryptic road sign, but something _real_.

“No kidding,” Leo agreed. “Coruscant to Kinyen to Alderaan, and now Nar Shaddaa? Anyone else feel like we started a scavenger hunt at some point?”

“We already got ambushed once,” Piper recalled, “and it’s a much longer trip to Hutt Space. Who knows what’s waiting for us?”

“ _If_ we go.”

As Piper and Leo debated whether to continue on or not, Jason felt a chill in the Force. Stopping in his tracks, he looked all around. Other shoppers paid him no mind, and nobody he focused his attention on seemed to be anything out of the ordinary.

Facing forward again, he saw the bounty hunters a few meters ahead, looking at him in confusion. “Everything okay?” Leo asked him.

“Yes, it’s…” he wasn’t sure how to explain it to someone who wasn’t a Jedi. “...I thought I felt something for a moment.”

“Good something?” Piper inquired, “or bad something?”

“I don’t know. It was here, and then it was gone.”

“Ah, you’re probably just hungry,” Leo said dismissively. “C’mon, we’ll hit up Biscuit Baron on the way back. Get some food and plan the next move.” Jason couldn’t shake the feeling, but he had to admit, a Bantha Breakfast was sounding pretty good at the moment. He was about to agree to the suggestion when Piper held up a hand to her ear--a comlink call.

“This is she. Yeah, he’s with us. Why--what?” Her eyes went wide. “Yes, I’ll tell him. We’re on our way.” She looked up at them with shock on her face. “That was spaceport security. They say they’ve detected baradium signatures throughout the spaceport. They asking for Jedi assistance tracking them down.”

“Baradium?” Leo asked quietly, so as not to attract attention. “Baradium is used for–”

“Explosives.” Jason finished grimly, realizing what his earlier feeling must have meant. “Someone’s planted bombs in the spaceport.”

*******

“We’ve identified a minimum of seventeen baradium signatures so far,” Kast To’myr, the spaceport’s Bothan security chief grumbled to the assembled personnel, highlighting the points on the hologram. “Fifteen of them are in low priority areas; office blocks, refreshers. It shouldn’t be much of a problem to find and neutralize those. The problem—” he zoomed in on an isolated section of the facility, with two clouds of red light representing the explosives, “—is the western zone refueling station tanks. The depot itself is underground, and there’s so much interference down there, we can’t get a lock with internal sensors. There could be as few as two bombs, or as many as a dozen.”

Jason nodded. “That’s where I come in.” The hope was that the Force—with a little help from a molecular analyzer—could guide him to these devices for the security teams.

The chief nodded back. “When you find one, place one of these,” he gestured to the small rectangular boxes on the table in front of them, “the electromagnetic scrambler should jam whatever detonator these things might be using, and the transmitter inside will give the bomb squads a precise location.”

“These fuel tanks,” Leo cut in, “how much are we talking?”

“They’re at 35% in total at the moment,” the port administrator, a dark-skinned human who looked to be in his late sixties, said grimly, “over 400,000 litres of fuel each. If even one of these bombs goes off…” He didn’t finish, but the point was made: they could kiss the west wing of the port goodbye.

“These things didn't get here by themselves,” Piper pointed out, “somebody planted them. Was there any sign of an intruder? Have the security recordings been examined?”

“There were no alarms triggered anywhere in the facility in the last month,” the administrator replied, “as for the recordings, we transmitted the footage to Republic analysts in the city, but it will take time.” The old man frowned. “We’ve evacuated all passengers and crew, and space traffic control is redirecting new arrivals to elsewhere on the planet, but that won’t last long. This is the largest port on the planet; nobody else has that kind of capacity. And everyone with a ship parked here is trapped.”

“Better trapped than dead,” Jason reminded him, “I’m sure they understand that. The other visitors too. No one wants to risk their safety for a little convenience.”

The administrator scoffed. “Pardon me for saying so, Master Jedi, but you sound exactly like someone who never worked in travel services.”

“I’m sure Jedi Grace is just optimistic about resolving this,” To’myr said, “and I hope he’s right. Because if he’s not, traffic’s gonna be delayed for a lot longer.”

The officers around them scattered, each crossing the central concourse to their assigned post. Leo was with the team taking care of examining—and hopefully dismantling—the nearest bombs (a risk for which Jason imagined Piper had negotiated a hefty fee). Jason would be taking the maintenance tunnels underneath the complex to reach his destination. As he opened up the access hatch, he heard Piper calling for him.

“Hey,” she said, “be careful. I don’t need the Force to know this didn’t just happen out of the blue.”

“I think you’re right,” said Jason. “Do me a favor and monitor the comm channels. Something like this usually involves demands of some kind. Maybe you’ll pick up something traceable.”

She nodded. “ Will do. Good luck.” She turned to head back to the security office, and Jason stepped through into the dimly-lit maintenance tunnels.

According the chief, these tunnels were some of the oldest parts of the facility. While the buildings above had been repeatedly demolished over the centuries in favor of more modern, high-capacity structures, the tunnels and their workshops, pipes, power conduits, and storage bays had gone almost unchanged since the Great Hyperspace War.

It was the perfect way to get around the port quickly. If you didn't mind the mold, the dangerously frayed electrical wiring, and the vermin. Fortunately for Jason, Jedi were made of sterner stuff. Which was exactly what he told himself whenever something crawled across his foot.

After a few minutes of travel, Jason came upon the heavy durasteel door to the fuel depot. Entering the access code into the ancient numerical keypad, it slid open with a groan. The interior was even more of a warren than the tunnels had been; pipes and cables crisscrossed between the eight enormous tanks in a tangle that would take a century to undo. But it couldn't mask the baradium hidden within. The analyzer in Jason's hand had started buzzing almost as soon as he crossed the threshold; the first bomb was close.

Closing his eyes, Jason inhaled deeply, imagining the air moving through him as the Force itself. In and out, each breath bringing him into closer harmony with his surroundings. He felt his feet begin to move, as if on their own, and his body turning to guide them. As he came to a halt, the analyzer’s buzz became heavier. His eyes opened, and fell upon the first bomb.

It was small; two dull gray metal cylinders no larger than beverage cans, wrapped in what looked like a sheet of flimsiplast to hold it all together. The device was placed underneath an old, seemingly inactive power conduit. Sparing a second to memorize its appearance, Jason reached into his satchel and pulled out one of the transmitter/scramblers. A moment later, the bomb was—hopefully—disarmed, and he moved on.

The next bomb went much the same way, strapped to a coolant line. He found the third wedged behind a diagnostics console, and the fourth stuck to the side of one of the tanks. One by one, over what felt like a day but was probably little more than an hour, Jason tracked down and tagged each explosive, guided by his instincts and his trust in the Force.

It was only when he checked his bag to find one scrambler remaining out of his original ten that he realized how deep into the maze he’d come: He was on a sublevel of some sort, in the shadow of one of the enormous fuel tanks. This was probably the depot’s lowest foundation; the floor was a slab of filthy duracrete, with ancient equipment crates stacked around the access stair in a lopsided circle. The only light was filtered through the scaffolding above, making the place feel like some sort of dungeon. The only sounds to be heard were a distant mechanical hum, the occasional scurrying rodent…

...and applause?

“Well done, Jason.”

In less than a heartbeat, Jason had his lightsaber in his hand, the familiar _snap-hiss_ bathing the area in soft violet light. There, to his right, reclining on one of the old crates, was a darkly dressed humanoid, with a hood pulled over his eyes.

“Jedi instincts really are something, aren't they?” The boys voice was light, amused, and instantly recognizable. “You made it down here even faster than I thought.”

Jason pointed his lightsaber at the boy from Kerma Station. “I knew I'd be seeing you again,” he said, taking one cautious step forward. “I’m guessing we have you to thank for all this?”

The boy nodded. “Yes,” he said cheerfully. “ Well, no. Kind of.”

“You ‘kind of’ carried out an act of terrorism?”

“Yeah, ‘kind of’.” The boy shrugged his shoulders carelessly. “It's more like I...co-opted it?” He hopped down from the crate, paying no mind to the saber six inches from his chest. Standing up, he was a quite a bit shorter than Jason, but his posture was confident and carefree. “See, there were these students. They wanted to stage a protest against...zakkeg poaching, I think. I don't know. The point is, they planned to rig up some bombs as a show of force, and then flood the comm frequencies with this _awful_ song they wrote. I just sort of stepped in and took over.”

“Because you care so much about wildlife?” Jason asked dubiously.

“Of course not,” the boy said dismissively. “I sent those idiots packing before you touched down on this planet. Told them to consider less stupid methods of activism. No, this was so I could talk to you.”

Jason frowned. “I don't recall any explosives last time.” That a call would have been sufficient went unsaid but, Jason hoped, was obvious.

“Do you recall the enormous kriffing warship that nearly blasted you and your friends into space dust?” the boy asked, tapping the side of his head. “Somebody on the station was watching you.”

“And you expect me to believe that had nothing to do with you?” Jason couldn't buy it.

The kid snorted. “Oh, I had something to do with you _surviving_ it.”

“The other ship...that was you?”

“Well, I was there in spirit,” he shrugged, “I found out the Sith were targeting you, and sent a friend of mine to keep an eye out.” The boy grinned, an eerie effect in the pale light. “You're welcome.”

Jason wasn't sure he could trust a word this guy was saying. But now, as before, he did have questions. “Who are you?” That would suffice to start.

“A friend.”

That grin was starting to get on Jason’s nerves. “Your name,” he said, bringing the tip of his saber just a little closer to the boy’s chin. “Now.” He concentrated on the kid’s presence in the Force; there would be no disappearing act this time.

“Hmph. Fine.” Raising his hands slowly, the boy grabbed the edge of his hood and pulled it down. He wasn’t bad looking, but his face was long and lean, like he wasn’t done growing all the way. The boy’s eyes were dark, as was the mop of hair that framed his face. In the lightsaber’s violet glow, his pale skin took on an inhuman tinge; Jason thought he looked a little bit like a ghost. “Nico di Angelo,” the boy said, “so pleased to make your acquaintance.”

It took Jason half a moment to recognize the name, and another half to remember where he recognized it _from_. “You?”

The boy-–Nico-–beamed. “You know who I am, then?”

“I know a little,” Jason admitted. “Enough to wonder where you fit into all of this.” Nico di Angelo was a bit of a romantic figure to apprentices at the temple. He’d been one of many children brought to begin Jedi training, alongside his sister. When she died, he ran away, swearing revenge on the person he held responsible: Percy Jackson.

But that revenge had never come. The two met several more times over the course of the war, each occasion forcing them to help one another. The uneasy partnership had culminated in di Angelo’s surprise appearance on the day Kronos attacked the Jedi Temple, putting his old grudge behind him and providing invaluable assistance to the defenders. He’d vanished again soon after the Sith were driven off, before most of the Order-–Jason among them-–returned from Thyferra.

“You first,” Nico said. “I know you’re looking for Annabeth. I know you think she’s the key to finding Percy. I’ll tell you what I can, if you tell me what you’re planning to do to him.” Nico's voice had gone tight, and suspicious.

Jason blinked. Everything he knew about Nico di Angelo (little enough, to be sure) made it clear that he didn’t have much love for Percy Jackson. But the concern was evident, both in his tone of voice, and in the Force. “I want to help him,” he said truthfully, “both of them.” Nico raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, prompting Jason to continue.

“We don’t know what’s going on. Fifty-five people are dead and we don’t know anything. And it’s all gotten so much more complicated since I left the Temple. But they’re Jedi. That makes them my family, and if they’re in trouble, or if they’re just...lost...then the first step is always to find them, and get them the help they need. And the only way I can do that,” Jason lowered the lightsaber, keeping it active for the light it cast but no longer prepared to attack, “is if you help me understand what’s happening.” He held out a hand, entreating. “So please, help me understand.”

Nico was silent and still for a long, long moment; his face, inscrutable. So long, in fact, that Jason started to worry he’d missed the mark. The boy sighed. “Y’know,” he said, with a slight smile, “you Jedi know how to give a speech.” He gave a small chuckle. “Completely pointless of course, I wouldn’t be talking to you if I didn’t want to help, but very pretty. If the whole ‘defending the galaxy’ thing doesn’t work out, you should consider running for the Senate.”

Jason bit back a groan. How was it that he seemed to have nothing in his life but the most acerbic sentients in the galaxy? One minute, this guy wanted to help, the next he was wary, and then it was back to jokes.

“So, here’s the thing: I...have no idea where Percy or Annabeth are. The last time I spoke to Annabeth, she was on Onderon, but that was weeks ago.” Nico looked pensive. “She said something else was going on; that nothing that’s happened since Denon was what it looked like. Since the end of the war, even.”

“What does that mean?”

Nico shook his head. “I asked her that. All she would-–or maybe _could_ –-tell me, was that the Jedi Council couldn’t help her. That there were some problems that had to be pulled out by the root.”

Jason sighed. “That’s it? Back to square one, after all this?”

“No. See, the reason I had you come to this planet was that there’s somebody on the way here that might know more. Tell me,” Nico leaned in close, “have you ever heard of Rachel Dare?”

Jason nodded. “A civilian, some kind of land-development heiress.” She’d first come to the Order’s attention after Umbara, when she’d given Percy Jackson a ride back to Coruscant. She appeared in his file several more times, always under less than perfectly-explained circumstances. “We know she has connections to Jackson and Chase, but she’s been avoiding the Council’s calls.” A benefit to having a wealthy family was that you could give almost anybody the runaround.

“There’s a good reason for that.”

“Which is…?”

“Not my secret to tell. But Rachel is one of the few people in the Republic that Annabeth might go to for help.” The young man grinned slyly. “As luck would have it, she’s been negotiating with House Ulgo on her father’s behalf. A marble purchase, I think. Duchess Ulgo’s brother is bringing her to Alderaan to sign the deal. Guess when their ship is scheduled to touch down?”

Jason snorted. “Don’t tell me: as soon as I tell them it’s safe?” Nico just grinned even wider. “You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”

“Originally, I was going to to just give you a holonet call. After your close call on the hyperlanes, it seemed like I needed a more...subtle way to deliver the message.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “Twenty-four bombs is you idea of subtle?” He shook his head. “I’d hate to see you go all out.”

“Yes you would.” Nico stepped back. “You should go. It’s not wise to keep Rachel waiting.” He turned on his heel, moving to leave the circle of crates. “I’ll contact you when I can. Hopefully next time will be less complicated.”

“Wait!” Jason called after him. One question still nagged at him. “Those people my friends were looking for-–the jeweler and her boyfriend–-they’re not here.”

“No, they aren’t,” Nico affirmed, not turning around. “What’s your point?”

“I know the woman is Force-sensitive. Was there actually a client who was picky about his vertex crystals at the same time we were meant to show up? Or was that just a pretense to get them offworld?” Jason didn’t believe in coincidences, and this was an awfully big one.

“Oh, Jedi…” Nico turned his head, giving Jason a wry smile. “You see right through me.” Then he engaged his stealth generator and vanished, leaving Jason alone once again.

Shaking his head, Jason made his way back up the stairs. He might have been able to track Nico through the Force, but it didn’t seem worth it. He had a feeling they were destined to meet again.

As he found the exit and stepped out onto a landing pad, his comm buzzed. _“Jason?”_ Piper’s voice filled his ear, _“I’m picking up your signal outside. Did you find all of them?”_

“I did, and more,” he replied. “I’ll tell you about it when I get back. Is Leo OK?”

_“He’s fine,”_ said Piper, _“they cleared the terminal building. They’re getting ready to head down after you. I’m reading nine signals, is that right?”_

“Yes. Hey, did you pick up any other transmissions leaving the spaceport?”

_“Just management, talking with the planetary government.”_

“What about motion sensors?” he pressed. “Did anybody leave the grounds?”

_“Lemme check,”_ the line went quiet for a moment. _“Nope. Security perimeter shows nothing in or out.”_

“I didn’t think so. I’m on my way back now.”

_“Good. To’myr says they should have the depot cleared in about an hour if you got them all. The senator’s escort has been calling every five minutes asking if we’re done yet.”_

“The senator?” Jason asked.

_“Yeah, Senator Ulgo. His ship’s been in orbit since you went under. Apparently he’s got some corporate buddy with him. Actually, they’ve been asking for you.”_

“For me?” That didn’t make sense. Jason didn’t know the Senator, and he doubted he knew anybody in the man’s social circle either.

_“For ‘the Jedi’, anyway. Some woman called Rachel Dare. Ring any bells?”_

"Oh." Right. _'The Duchess' brother'_ , di Angelo had said. It seemed he'd left out one crucial detail. “It’s a long story, but yes. I’ll fill you in when I get back. Do me a favor and find a secure room. This needs to stay private.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you noticed the very inconsistent appearance of em dashes in this chapter, it's a mystery to me too. They look fine in the original doc, but Ao3 doesn't seem to want to render half of them.


	6. Dare or Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rachel Dare knows things.

The administrator had set aside one of the port’s rentable conference rooms for the meeting. As they waited, Jason relayed to his companions the story of his encounter with Nico di Angelo, and his advice to seek out the woman who was now seeking _them_ out.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Leo exclaimed. “All that to tell us something we would have found out anyway?” He’d grabbed a bottle of juma juice from the room’s minibar, and was steadily working his way to the bottom.

Piper nodded in agreement, nursing her own glass. “This whole thing feels like someone’s idea of a joke.”

“I’m not sure,” Jason admitted, “I feel another hand in all this, but I can’t figure out a motivation.”

“Like a game of dejarik with half the pieces hidden,” a voice from the entrance said. All three turned to look.

In the doorway stood a woman, around Jason’s age, with barely-tamed red hair and pale skin. She wore an outfit that Jason suspected was calculated to evoke confusion in an observer: a pair of worn, paint-stained trousers and tunic, an expensive-looking red Nanosilk jacket, and clunky boots better suited to mountaineering on some ice planet than a luxurious Core Worlds business trip.

“I think I can help with that,” said Rachel Dare, striding into the room and taking a seat. She grabbed the bottle of juma juice and poured herself a glass. As she returned it, she took a long look at Piper. “You seem familiar,” she said, “have we met?”

“Doubt it,” Piper mumbled into her cup, steadfastly averting her eyes. Jason’s interest was piqued, but they had more important things to address.

“I was told–”

“–that I could tell you things? And who told you that? Wait,” Dare held up a hand, “don’t tell me. Dramatic, underhanded, and guaranteed to send the wrong message about the kind of person he is.” She sipped her drink, an amused twinkle in her eye. “Is Nico still using that stealth generator to make a grand exit, too, or did he finally take my advice and invest in some fog machines?” Throwing her head back, she drained the glass, before setting it down a little harder than Jason thought was warranted. “I love that kid, but he just can’t help looking like a holodrama villain sometimes.”

“He said you might have been in contact with Annabeth Chase,” said Jason. “I’m sure that a woman as informed as you seem to be would understand why I’d want to talk to you.”

“Oh I understand. Not sure _you_ do.”

Rachel Dare seemed to have the same all-knowing smirk as Nico di Angelo did; Jason could see how they’d be friends. “How do you mean?” he asked, feeling his patience already beginning to thin.

“Well _you’re_ here,” Dare said, like she was pointing out something that wasn’t patently obvious.

“Yes I am,” Jason replied.

“No,” said Dare, "I mean, it’s you. Why you?”

“I was available.” Jason didn’t see the relevance of this line of questioning. There wasn’t exactly a surplus of Knights or Masters after the war.

“You’re a little more than ‘available,’” Dare asserted, “you’re maybe the third most famous Jedi alive.”

Leo snorted. “Third? Who are the first two?”

“You’re hunting them,” Dare responded, never taking her eyes off Jason. He didn’t miss the emphasis she seemed to put on the word ‘hunting’.

“I’m looking for a possible witness to multiple murders,” Jason said sharply, “nothing more.”

“Is that so?” Dare asked airily, reaching for the bottle to refill her glass. “I apologize, then. It’s just a little mystifying to me that the Council would send their best warrior and not an investigator like, say, Master Athena.”

“They didn’t explain the logic behind the assignment to me,” Jason said, “nor do they need to. My investigations have led me this far.”

“All the way to me,” Dare said, “must be that ‘will of the Force’ you Jedi are always talking about.”

“So you do know something.”

Dare nodded. “On the way here, I received a priority message. It was transmitted from a Holonet beacon in this sector, but where it came from isn’t important.”

“Because…?” Leo asked, clearly getting even more impatient than Jason was, although perhaps less irritated.

“The message was short. Coordinates to a star system, a few parsecs from here.” Dare reached into her jacket, pulling out a datacard and sliding it across the table to Jason. “And two sentences: _‘He’s here. Tell Grace.’_ ”

Jason looked down at the card. “And you don’t know who sent it?”

“The sender didn’t sign their name if that’s what you mean,” Dare said, “but the encryption they used was the same one Annabeth came up with when we were in the Rishi Maze a few years ago, so…” she spread her hands out, inviting Jason to draw his own conclusions.

“The Rishi Maze?” Leo asked him. Jason recognized the name, although Dare’s participation in the incident was new.

It was Dare who answered. “One of the little adventures Percy dragged me into. There was a Sith Lord, a Gree hypergate, and a plot to destroy the capital. You know,” she shrugged, “the usual.”

“You said there were six people who knew,” Jason said.

“Well, there’s no way it’s Tyson. I’m the one who got the message, and you’ve already talked to Nico, so that leaves three. I haven’t had any luck getting in touch with Grover, but this really isn’t his style. That just leaves…”

“...our special boy and girl?” Leo finished. Dare just held up her glass in salute.

“So, maybe not a trap,” Piper said, earlier reticence seemingly forgotten. “What do we know about this system?”

“Very little,” replied Dare. “I included everything on that datacard, but it isn’t much. No planets, just an old thorilide mining operation Czerka used to run in the asteroid belt. It’s been abandoned for over a century now, so anybody could have moved in.”

In the Force, Jason felt a stirring, like a river being undammed. He felt as though things were flowing in their proper course again.

“Hold on,” Leo raised a hand. “Something’s bugging me. Creepy boy sent us here because he knew you’d be here. And he knew mentioning our friends would get us going. You were on your way already, did you know we’d be here?”

Dare shook her head. “I was looking for Grace as soon as I got the message, but I didn’t know you’d come here until we dropped out of hyperspace and found out about the incident at the spaceport.”

“So we’ve got creepy–”

“Nico.”

“–whatever. Him, the mystery caller, and the Sith who tried to blow us away. So who talked?”

“Possibly no one,” Jason pointed out. “When I talked to di Angelo, he said he thought somebody was watching us.”

“Sounds like something a spy would say.”

“He said the third ship was a friend of his,” said Jason, “the one that came to our rescue.”

“Also something a spy would say.”

“It’s not Nico’s style,” Dare said dismissively, “he much prefers doing good things that make him seem bad. If he wants you dead, he’ll just run up and kill you.”

Jason frowned. “I didn’t sense any deception from him,” he ignored the two pairs of rolling eyes that statement elicited, “reservation, maybe, but I don’t think he was lying.”

“Lying or not, Nico’s not your priority.” Dare turned back to Jason. “What do you sense about the coordinates?”

“That I need to go there,” said Jason, “right away.”

“Good,” Dare said, getting to her feet, “while you’re doing that, I’ll pull some strings. These mystery Sith of yours came from somewhere. With a ship that big, with the damage you described...somebody knows something. Throw enough credits around, eventually somebody will start _saying_ something.”

“Thank you,” Jason said, and he meant it. Coy as she’d played it, Dare had given him a real lead, he could feel it.

“Don’t mention it. I’ll contact you when I get something. Oh,” she turned then to Leo, “by the way, captain, a member of the senator’s staff mentioned you. I think he wanted to meet?” Her raised eyebrow suggested more than a ‘mention’.

Leo gave a weak chuckle, reached for his drink, and said nothing.

“Good luck,” Dare said as she walked out the door.

After the door slid closed, the three sat in silence for a few minutes; Jason processing what he’d learned, Leo finishing off the juma, and Piper absorbed in thoughts of her own.

Jason opened his mouth to suggest they get moving, but Leo cut him off. “Well,” he said nervously, running a hand through his hair, “I’m, uh, I’m gonna go see what she meant. I’ll meet you guys at the ship. In...a while?” He practically sprinted out of the room, giving Jason and Piper no time to respond.

Another moment of silence followed, more awkward than the one before.

“So…” Jason broke the silence, “...it seemed like the two of you knew each other?” He cringed as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Jedi training wasn’t good preparation for conversations like this. Interrogations, he could do; uncomfortable wheedling less so.6

“Nope. Common mistake.” Piper wouldn’t look at him. “I have one of those faces, y’know?” Jason didn’t know that; he rather doubted it, in fact, but Piper wasn’t giving him the chance to say that. Instead, she stood up. “Well, I’m gonna get the ship ready. Leo’s gonna be busy for...a while. Ugh. No need to rush back.” With that, Jason found himself alone.

He eyed the empty bottle, and the dirty glassware. Rachel Dare had done exactly what Nico di Angelo had promised; the Force had brought him to her, and now he had a new destination. When he got there, he felt that there would be more to learn; more of Dare’s hidden dejarik pieces to be revealed.

What he hadn’t expected was that Piper might be one of those pieces. A Force-sensitive acquaintance was one thing, but Dare had definitely seemed to recognize her, and Piper hadn’t seemed particularly happy–or forthcoming–about it. A frustratingly vague feeling permeated the Force when he considered the whole matter. Yet again, he sensed no danger, and no outright duplicity. Just more questions.

He shoved those questions aside. He was still running on adrenaline from the day’s excitement, and the thrill of finally getting a break in the case. He wouldn’t solve this mystery as he was, and it was a secondary concern regardless. His attention was best given to the investigation. And he was close now, so close.

_He’s here. Tell Grace._

Jason stood. His time on Alderaan had come to an end. All that was left was to inform the Council.

Time now to move forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the fourth completely different draft of this chapter. It languished for months while I tried to get from point A to point B. I still hate it, but it's over. Next time, and I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to it: ACTION!


	7. Interlude 1: A Call From Alderaan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wherein a brief conversation is had.

**INCOMING TRANSMISSION**   
**POINT OF ORIGIN: STAR SYSTEM 1138-BESH “ALDERAAN”**   
**SENDER ID RECOGNIZED: “4938773-R-E-D”**

**ENCRYPTION DETECTED**   
**PROMPT: “THESUNGOESDOWNONDANTOOINE” - AWAITING RESPONSE**

**“ANDTHEKINRATHCOMEOUTTOPLAY”**

**DECRYPTION SUCCESSFUL**   
**TRANSMISSION OPEN - AUDIO ONLY**

_“They’re on their way.”_

“Good. Do you think he suspects?”

_“No, not a thing. I don’t think Piper does either. I wonder how long it’ll take her to remember where we met.”_

“Long enough to not back out, I hope.”

_“Oh, I don’t think we need to worry about that. My little friend is very confident about her. About both of them”_

“Your ‘little friend’ isn’t the most direct, you know.”

_“Maybe. She hasn’t let us down yet. Speaking of…”_

“We’re at the edge of the system now. Six hours to contact.”

_“Already? A little early, isn’t it? A party like this takes time to plan.”_

“Can’t have a party until we tell the host, can we?”

_“Fair enough. How’s your date?”_

“Her usual charming self.”

_“Never could resist a dance, that one. And the...guest of honor?”_

“Very close by. I’d know his presence anywhere. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was waiting for us.”

_“That...doesn’t sound like him.”_

“No. No it doesn’t. None of this does.”

_“You’ve got that right. Listen, my business here will be over soon. I have another lead, though. Something you might find interesting.”_

“What kind of ‘interesting’?”

_"His friend, the jeweller. I know where she’s going.”_

“Nar Shaddaa, right? We already knew that.”

_"No. Her ship never arrived at Nar Shaddaa. Never even entered Hutt space.”_

“Then where?”

_“Vjun.”_

“Vjun? Never heard of it.”

_“It’s a rock in the Outer Rim. Ties to Tapani nobility through marriage, but nobody’s really cared about it since the previous occupants left.”_

“Previous occupants?”

_“The Sith Empire.”_

“That’s probably not great.”

_“It gets better. According to a rumor, the Viscount of Vjun recently gave permission for a team to carry out an archeological dig on the planet. The project lead is Carter Kane.”_

“...oh boy.”

_“Yeah. Thing is, I can’t find any official records. The academy on Obroa-skai said that Kane took a leave of absence, and the archeology program doesn’t have any projects in that entire sector. I know for a fact that he’s on Vjun, and I know Hazel and Frank are there too. But there’s no backing for this. As far as I can tell, it’s a one-man operation with no funding and no documentation.”_

“It’s a front.”

_“No doubt.”_

“See what else you can find, then. I can think of a few reasons he’d be tracking down Sith artifacts on the sly, and none of them are pleasant. So be careful.”

_“You too. And if you see you-know-who, punch him the face and tell him to pick up a commlink next time he’s in trouble. This little game of his is a real pain.”_

“I’ll do that. Talk to you soon.”

_“Later.”_

**TRANSMISSION TERMINATED**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is only its own chapter because I didn't like the way it flowed as part of the big update, which is coming in a few hours.


	8. Starkiller, Part 1: At Long Last

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason arrives at the Sith stronghold, and it all starts coming together.

“Security spikes?”

“Check. Power pack?”

As the bounty hunters took stock of what they’d need, Jason kept an eye on the navicomputer. Three minutes to star system 37553-Trill, a desolate and theoretically uninhabited system on the outer edge of the galactic core region.

“Check. Flamethrower fuel?”

“It’s _me_ , remember? Check.”

Rachel Dare had provided as complete a readout of the system as she could get. But short of actually going there herself, the best she could do for them was an asteroid drift chart based on century-old data, and a basic schematic of the thorilide mining station that Czerka Corporation had left behind when the operation dried up.

“Carbonite projector?”

“Doubt we’ll need it, but check.

With the lack of recent information, and the ‘he’ in Dare’s anonymous message unspecified, the group had agreed that the best course of action was to go in prepared for battle. Master Chiron hadn’t been enthusiastic about Jason and the hunters charging in with so little information, but Jason had argued that every moment allowed the enemy a chance to escape, and Chiron had relented, though not before promising to scramble as many ships as the Republic Fleet could spare to help. If the Sith proved too much for them, hopefully Jason could at least keep them in place until their backup arrived.

“Two minutes,” Jason called out behind him. His companions reentered the cockpit.

He hadn’t yet seen the bounty hunters fully outfitted. The casual clothing they’d preferred until now had been discarded in favor of thick Echani leatheris and light durasteel armor. Piper wore a pair of blasters on her hips, along with a vibroblade on her back and another strapped to her boot. A small carbonite projector adorned her left wrist, and a stun stick hung from her belt. Leo’s weapons were limited to single blaster, a holdout knife in his boot, and a flamethrower built into the gauntlet on his left wrist. Most of the equipment he carried was geared toward computer slicing and repair or disassembly of machines.

With his plain robe and single lightsaber, Jason felt a little underdressed.

“Right, Leo said, taking the pilot’s chair, “your Force giving you any idea what to expect?”

Jason shook his head. “No, but I feel like we’re going where we need to be going.”

The console chimed. Sixty seconds. Piper touched Jason’s shoulder.

“C’mon,” she said. “Battle stations.”

The viewport for the dorsal turret was polarized while in hyperspace; a precaution to protect the passengers’ minds. Jason used the moments until they exited to center himself.

‘There is no emotion. There is peace.’ An inspiring phrase, but Jason had to admit to himself, peace was the last thing he expected to find when they reached their destination.

Beneath him, Jason felt the hum of the hyperdrive slow, and then cease entirely. Holding in a breath, Jason watched as the transparisteel went clear again…

 _“What the hell!?”_ Leo and Piper both exclaimed over the intercom.

The ship hung in space before them: A CR15 corvette, a lean ship designed for speed over firepower. It’s crew were probably regretting that choice now. If any of them were still alive. Smoke and flame poured out of half a dozen hull breaches. The corvette’s engines were dark, and there didn’t seem to be any interior lights either. “Leo,” Jason called.

 _“I’m already working on it,”_ the captain replied. _“Silhouette’s a match for_ Labyrinthian _, but there’s no transponder signal. The ship’s got no power, half the compartments are exposed to space. I’m not picking up any life signs.”_

“Someone’s here before us?” Piper asked. “I didn’t think anyone else was this crazy, and even we brought a Jedi!”

“It may be someone who stumbled in,” Jason pointed out. “Pirates or smugglers. What about the station?”

 _Festus_ arced around the dead ship, and the mining station came into view. The largest asteroid in the belt, some 40 kilometers long, had been chosen for the mining post. A series of compartments clung to the surface, like boxy durasteel tumors.

 _“Scanning...huh. I’ve got a_ Carraba _-class assault shuttle in the primary hanger. Picking up weapons fire from inside. And at one of the secondary airlocks...guess who?”_

Certainty washed over Jason. “The third ship. From the Commenor Run.”

_“The gang’s all here.”_

“Any space-based defenses left?” asked Piper.

_“Nope. Just debris. Whoever these guys are, they're thorough.”_

Abandoning the turrets, Jason and Piper rejoined Leo in the cockpit. “I’m bringing us to one of the secondary hatches,” the pilot said. “We’ll keep some–” A chiming from the communications console cut him off. Sharing a look with her partner, Piper reached over and opened the channel.

 _“Unidentified craft, you’ve entered a free-fire zone,”_ a gruff voice on the other side barked out. _“Turn around and leave this system immediately or we cannot guarantee your...hold on.”_ The voice withdrew, but the frequency was still open. The three could barely make out a few words. Jason distinctly heard ‘ _are you sure?_ ’ and _‘if that’s the way you want it’_ before the voice was back in full. _“You’re clear for approach,”_ it said, _“maintain your present course.”_ The comm crackled, and then went silent.

The trio looked at one another.

“So that’s weird,” Piper said uneasily.

“Very weird,” Leo agreed.

“It seems we’re expected. By someone, anyway.” Jason wasn’t sure what to make of that exchange, but it was getting them where they needed to go. “Take us in?”

“On it.” There was a thud as _Festus_ tied into the station’s airlock and aligned with its artificial gravity.

The three made their way to the hatch. Jason gripped his lightsaber loosely, and the hunters readied their blasters. “I sense a presence on the station…” Jason said, closing his eyes, “...or several. A darkness...and something else.”

“Darkness is bad, right?” Leo asked sarcastically.

Jason paid him no mind. “It’s not like the one from before. The shape of the rage is...different. Hotter.” Their runaway Sith Lord, almost certainly. And with any luck, a couple of missing Jedi who could answer some questions.

“Alright,” Piper said, hand on the door control, “first things first, we need to get a read on whoever else is here.”

Leo nodded. “Get me into a computer, and we’ll see if the security grid is working.”

Jason took up position at the door. Holding his lightsaber, unlit but at the ready, he nodded at Piper, who depressed the control, and the ancient door creaked and slid open.

The corridor was dimly lit by emergency lighting. With the exception of some old trash on the floor, it was empty. Distantly, Jason could hear a klaxon going off in another section of the facility. The other intruders had the Sith's attention. They forged ahead, through the darkened halls and empty storage rooms. It was almost five minutes before they found a powered terminal, in what looked like an old office.

“Alright,” Leo said, cracking his knuckles, “let's see who we're dealing with.” He plugged a spike into the terminal's data port, and his hands began flying across the interface, almost too fast for Jason to track. “Basic surveillance is up...looks like internal defenses are on a separate circuit, though. Main power’s only active on the inner sections, so...hello!”

The screen shifted, bringing up the blue-hued image of a hallway. A number of bipedal battle droids made their way past the camera, firing blaster rifles at some unseen foe.

Jason perked up. “Can you—”

“—already on it.” The image flickered again, as Leo switched feeds to the adjacent chamber.

Behind a bank of computer consoles, a lone figure was crouched. A humanoid, they wore full, heavy armor, and carried a large blaster rifle, which they fired over their cover at the droids pouring into the room. Each shot caught a droid, but most weren’t immediately brought down, and every moment allowed the concentrated fire to burn away at the figure’s impromptu shelter.

“Where is that?” Jason asked.

“Main reception,” Leo said, “about a kilometer away.”

“Are those droids with the Sith,” Piper inquired, “or the other intruders?”

Leo clicked away at the console. “Sith. They’re tied into the station defenses,” he said grimly, “and I can’t shut them down from here.”

“How many between here and there?” Jason didn’t relish the thought of wading through an entire army.

“Hard to say,” Leo said with a shrug. “Network’s old, not everything’s online. A few dozen droids, at least. Some organics too, but it looks like they’re letting the droids do all the work for now.” He saved the updated layout to his datapad.

That was mistake that would cost the Sith dearly. Jason tightened his grip on the lightsaber. “Let’s hurry.”

They made it almost halfway before running into any droids. There were six of them, crossing a deserted space traffic control hub. The droids brought their rifles to bear on the three immediately.

It wasn’t enough. Jason’s lightsaber snapped to life in an instant, deflecting every blaster bolt sent his way as Piper and Leo took cover behind support columns on either side of him. With the aid of the Force, Jason angled one bolt back to the shooter, and then there were five hostiles. A well-placed shot from Piper brought that number down to four, and Leo took out a third a few moments later.

Jason inhaled, letting the Force flow through him, and charged forward. He closed half the distance between himself and the droids in the time it took to exhale, and sunk down into a slide. His trajectory took him right past the leftmost droid, which suddenly found itself missing its legs below the knee. As it collapsed, Jason slowed, kicking off the floor in a leap that perfectly positioned him to slice the center droid cleanly in half. Landing on his feet, he sprang back up and turned just in time to reflect the last droid’s shot directly into its faceplate, and it fell back with an electronic shriek.

Leo flashed him a grin as the hunters came out of cover. “Not bad, Jedi.” He leaned down to examine the droid at his feet. “Not all that great either, though. These things are ancient. Guess the Dark Side really doesn’t pay.”

“Let’s hope they’re all this cheap,” said Piper.

They were, in fact, all that cheap. Despite the droid’s controller having detected them during the fight, and sending several waves to intercept them as they made their way toward the other intruder, all met the same fate as the first group. It seemed the might of Asterion’s forces was no match for a single Jedi Knight and two capable bounty hunters.

As they got closer, however, they started encountering more junked droids than active ones. Most had fallen to mundane weapons: the signs of blasterfire and explosive detonations told the tale. But just outside the reception area, Jason began to notice something.

“This damage wasn’t caused by a blaster,” he said, nudging an inactive chassis with his boot. It had been split in half. _Cut_ in half. “It’s too clean.”

“Ten credits says it’s Chase,” Piper said.

“I’ll take that action,” Leo replied, “put me down for ten on ‘it’s two Sith fighting each other’. They do that, right?” Festus’ low growl crackled in their commlinks, and Leo frowned. “Yeah, I do know the odds of that, that’s what makes it fun.” The ship responded with a hum, and Jason guessed he was getting pretty good at interpreting, because it sounded to him like Festus disapproved.

The corridor leading to the reception area was positively littered with droids, all blown to pieces. Through the durasteel door, Jason could make out the sounds of battle. He heard Piper and Leo unholster their blasters behind him, and he lit his lightsaber as he touched the door control. Steeling himself, he depressed the button, and the door slid open onto an upper mezzanine.

Within was a scene that would have been unimaginable carnage, had there been more than one actual person involved. Droid parts littered the floor below; dozens, if not hundreds. And not just the bipedal models Jason and his companions had faced thus far. Alone among the wreckage, there was a single unit still functioning: an enormous assault droid with thick, well-armored treads to maneuver, and four heavy blaster cannons firing at full speed. There were half a dozen smoking holes in the chassis already, not that it seemed to be slowing the thing down any.

Its target was the armored figure from the security feed. Said armor had clearly served its wearer well; despite being pitted and blackened, the fighter was still up and moving, darting back and forth between the few customs terminals that hadn’t yet been melted down to slag. The rifle in their hands came to life every few seconds, hitting the droid more often than not, but doing no appreciable damage.

Beside him, Leo's scanner buzzed to life.

“Thoughts?” Jason asked.

“That's a CGA 980,” Leo replied as he skimmed through the results, “built for endurance. Frontal assault’s a no-go, that armor’s too much for our blasters. Your lightsaber might do the trick, if we had more time...hey, Pipes,” he turned to his partner, “d’you remember Simpla 12?”

Piper nodded. “You're thinking about an Alsakan Tickler?”

“I’m thinking about an Alsakan Tickler.”

“We don’t have a crane, Leo.”

“We’ve got a Jedi. Almost as good.” He leaned over the railing, shouting at the figure below. “Hey! Hey, pal! You got any explosives?”

The soldier briefly popped out of cover, flashed Leo a thumbs up, before ducking back down to narrowly avoid a fresh burst of laserfire.

“Alright” Leo called down, “we're gonna try an Alsakan Tickler!” Another brief gesture was all the acknowledgement he got

“So, a few questions,” Jason interrupted, “the first: What’s an Alsakan Tickler?”

“That droid’s armor can't be breached while it’s active, not with what we've got on us” Piper replied, checking her pistol’s charge, “but the central core is vulnerable to massive electric shock.”

“Which we’ve got right here,” Leo said as he held up a small device.”

“The underside of the droid is relatively vulnerable,” said Piper, “so you're gonna get it up off the ground for a second, and I'll attach the pulse charge. While the droid is rebooting, we should have a few seconds to wear a hole in the plating, enough for our friend down there to get in with a grenade.

“You’ll have to be quick,” Leo said, handing off the device to his partner, “980s have redundancies that’ll kick in fast. Put a gap in that armor.”

“On it,” said Jason, as he turned and leapt off the balcony.

Bits of metal flattened under his boots as he landed, eight meters from the 980. “Hey!” he cried, “Over here!” The droid stopped firing on the armored figure, and turned to face him. “Come on, then!” Jason shouted, waving his lightsaber. “Come and try me!”

The droid’s response was swift–and predictable. Its cannons spat out a torrent of red light, more than enough to reduce an unwary target to ash and vapor. But Jason was not an unwary target; his lightsaber parried four shots out of every five, though they were strong enough to nearly knock the wind out of him with every impact against the saber, and those he couldn’t deflect, he evaded. Twisting away from the line of fire with preternatural poise, Jason drew the droid’s attention away from the armored figure. To their credit, the soldier didn’t give an inch; they took full advantage of the distraction, sending as many bolts as their rifle could put out into the droid’s treads.

For his part, Jason sent every bolt he could into the upper chassis, obscuring himself for a few precious centiseconds; anything to keep the machine off-balance. The Jedi said that size didn’t matter, but the conscious mind exerted its influence all the same; something of this size couldn’t be overturned easily, not when Jason was aware of how much the battle droid must weigh. Any delay was worth pursuing, and working in tandem with the armored warrior could only ease the struggle.

As his feet moved through and around the wreckage, Jason was aware of an impact behind him. Piper had landed. The next few moments would be absolutely critical.

Adjusting his stance, Jason shifted into the the Soresu form. His lightsaber swung around and around in quick, tight arcs, as he focused less on batting the blaster bolts back into the droid, and more on send them anywhere that happened to be away from himself and Piper.

One second had passed.

Jason’s right hand let go of the saber. A burst of laserfire was reflected into the wall behind the droid, half a dozen molten holes appearing in the durasteel surface in the space of an eyeblink.

Two seconds.

His right hand drew back behind him as he gathered himself. It was said that the most skilled Masters could use telekinesis with no physical action whatsoever. Jason wasn’t quite at that level yet. A bit of playacting was required, to coax the Force into working on his behalf.

Three seconds.

The droid’s cannons fell silent as the the heat built up in its firing chambers. It was all the opening Jason needed, and he jabbed forward with his right hand. Broken droid parts went flying in a burst of telekinetic force, and the 980 was unbalanced, its front end raising up ever so briefly.

Four seconds.

It was a testament to her abilities that Jason didn’t have time to notice Piper darting around him; in one instant she was not there, and in the next, she was. The pulse charge left her hand almost too quickly for Jason to track, sailing across those eight meters in less than half the time it took for the 980’s treads to reach the floor again.

Five seconds.

Piper had fallen into a crouch, and Jason sprang into action. He vaulted over the bounty hunter, lightsaber already in motion to meet the renewed fire. Up on the mezzanine, Leo brought his thumb down on the charge’s controller. Electricity crackled over the droid’s chassis, and the blasters went dead. The pulse charge had done it’s job. Now it was their turn.

“Give it all you’ve got!” Jason yelled in the soldier’s direction as he charged forward. Even as Piper fired at the rightmost blaster cannon, with Leo spraying down at them from above, Jason and the armored figure were moving in.The droid’s behavior core was reinitializing even as they moved, but it wasn’t enough; Jason’s blade slammed into one of the seams connecting the central chassis to the base, and the durasteel armor began to melt away, little by little.

Six millimeters of plate had given way, by Jason’s estimation, when the soldier reached them. A passing glance was all he needed to identify the object in their hand: a thermal detonator. He pulled his arm back and disengaged the saber as the detonator’s magnetic field kicked in and pulled the little device into the gap. The soldier kept on running, taking refuge behind one of the mezzanine’s support struts. Jason and Piper, meanwhile, leapt over one of the room’s ruined terminals, as the detonator gave off an ever shriller warning alarm. The alarm crescendoed, and then fell silent for the briefest of moments, and then the roar of the explosion filled the air.

Piper and Jason pressed their backs to the terminal as flaming shrapnel sailed over their heads.

When they looked up, all was calm. As calm as the burning wreckage of a battlefield could be, anyway. What was left of the droid rested on the floor, the deadly machine reduced to a lump of smoking slag.

The armored soldier stepped out of cover, holding their rifle loosely in one hand.

“You have my thanks,” they said, in a Mandalorian-accented contralto, “I wasn’t sure how long I could hold out. Damned Sith didn’t send that thing out until I was on my own.” Slinging the rifle over one shoulder, the soldier lifted off their helmet.

The woman underneath a broad face full of scars, and short, dark hair. Her nose had clearly been broken a time or two. “Clarisse La Rue,” she said by way of introduction, “commander of the Red Spears Mercenary Company.” She looked Jason over briefly, taking in his robe and lightsaber. “Jedi, huh? You’re the reinforcements Chase mentioned, then?”

Chase. “So she’s here?” Jason asked.

La Rue nodded. “Yeah. She went on ahead to Central Operations. Asked me to hold down our exit while she took out the Sith.” Leo flipped on his handheld, plotting a route with this new information.

At the far end of the lobby, a turbolift slid open. Piper and La Rue both raised their blasters, only to be met by two more soldiers in Mandalorian armor. One carried what looked like a portable turret. La Rue scowled at the sight of them.

“It’s about time,” she grumbled. “The damned Jedi showed up before you did.”

“Sorry, commander,” one of the soldiers said, “we had some trouble getting up here. The Sith got smart, cut power to the hanger lifts.” He took in the destruction all around them. “Guess you didn’t need us after all, though.”

“I’ll tell you what I do or don’t need, Yang. Now set up that gun. I don’t want to be caught exposed again.” As her subordinates busied themselves with their task, La Rue turned back to Jason and the bounty hunters. “Chase’s favor is turning out a lot hairier than she said.”

“You’re in a warzone as a favor?” Piper asked skeptically.

La Rue shrugged her shoulders, which wasn’t readily apparent in her heavy armor. “I don’t make a habit of it, but in this case I owed her one,” She flashed a grin, displaying slightly crooked teeth, “and it’s always a good day to give the Sith a bloody nose.”

“Do you know how many troops the Sith have?” Jason asked the mercenary.

“More than we thought,” La Rue said with a frown. “I don’t have exact numbers. A small army, mostly droids; Chase mentioned encountering sentients before she dropped out of contact, too, but she couldn’t say how many. The Sith are jamming comms deeper in the facility, and I haven’t heard from her since.”

“When was this?”

“About half an hour ago,” she said, “not long after we detected your ship.”

“Speaking of ships,” Leo interrupted, “I’m guessing the dead one outside was your handiwork?”

Clarisse La Rue shook her head. “We noticed it on our way in, same as you. There’s another ship docked on the far side of the station; I assumed it took out the corvette.”

Jason nodded. “That makes sense. We’ve encountered that yacht before. It disabled a cruiser that ambushed us on the way to Alderaan.”

“Whoever flies that thing must know what they’re doing,” La Rue said thoughtfully. “Chase said that she didn’t know who it was, but I think I’ve got a pretty good idea.”

“An idea?” Jason asked. How much did this mercenary know?

La Rue snorted. “Don’t play dumb. I’ve heard the stories. There’s a Sith Lord on this station, one who’s supposed to be dead. There’s a Jedi hero out there who they’re saying has gone homicidal. _Gra’tua_. Revenge is the oldest motivation in the galaxy. One of them is bound to try and take out the other; it’s how these things go.”

So it was true. Chase was working on the same theory he was, that Percy Jackson was out to kill the Sith who’d invaded his homeworld and killed his family. It wasn’t rock-solid, but if anybody could discern Jackson's intention, it would be Annabeth Chase.

“Hang on,” Piper said, “you really think Mystery Ship belongs to Percy Jackson?”

La Rue rolled her eyes. “Watch a holodrama sometime, _beroya_. I’d bet this job’s whole take on it.”

“If we were getting any,” Yang chimed in.”

“Quiet!” barked La Rue.

“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Piper insisted, “that ship kept us from being blown to space dust. Why would Percy Jackson do that?” She turned to Jason. “He has to know that you want to arrest him.”

It was a good question. “Right now, we still don’t know anything,” he said.

“Well then, you’d best get going and find out, hadn’t you?” La Rue put her helmet back on. “We’ll keep this position secure; I’d come with you, but I can’t leave these cannocks by themselves.” She gestured in the direction of her men, who wisely kept quiet. “If you can, try to clear the comm channels. We might need to get in touch.”

“Alright,” Jason said, as he made to follow Piper and Leo to one of the exits.

Piper scowled as the door slid shut behind them. “ _Watch a holodrama_ ,” she muttered derisively.

“You gotta admit, it would be convenient.” Leo had finished mapping out the way to Operations, and was leading them down a dim corridor.

“It’s never convenient,” Piper said. “This is real life, Leo, not _The Bestine Gamble_.”

“What’s _The Bestine Gamble_?” Jason asked, still not used to what he assumed was bounty hunter slang.

“It’s a holomovie,” said Leo. “Hutt gangsters versus renegade Echani Guardsmen taking the law into their own hands. You never saw it?” Jason had not. “The lead actor was–”

“–overpaid,” Piper cut him off, shooting a nasty glare in her partner’s direction.

Jason blinked. Weird thing to get defensive about. Maybe Piper just didn’t care for fiction. “How far to Operations?” he asked, hoping to get them back on topic.

“Three and a half kilometers,” Leo replied. “We’re cutting through machine storage; it’s a longer trip, but the security feed had the fewest droids there. We might be able to sneak through, take the Sith by surprise.”

There really didn’t seem to be any droids. It was five minutes of silent passages and flickering lights before the three encountered any interruption to the monotony. It was a door control. Or it had been, once. Now it was a sparking mess, with most of circuitry burned away. The door was open, and a storage warehouse lay beyond, full of what Jason could only assume was spare mining equipment.

“I don’t think you were the first one to think to come this way,” Piper told Leo. All three made sure to have a good grip on their weapons.

Circling around a large container, Jason got a good look at the space. At the far end was an enormous durasteel blast door, which was closed. There was an old loader droid sitting in one corner, long deactivated. Most of the floor was clear. A few large crates and assorted machines were stacked up near the walls, creating the feel of an enclosed arena, twenty or so meters across. And in the center…

“Is that a body?” Leo asked aloud, even though it was fairly obvious.

It was a Mirialan male, about twenty-five years old, dressed all in black. He was on his back, eyes still open, his face frozen in disbelief. Across his chest was a long, slender line of singed fabric and cauterized flesh. It was a distinctive wound, one Jason had seen many times.

“This man was killed by a lightsaber,” said Jason.

“Not just killed by one. Look at what he’s holding,” Piper pointed. In the dead man’s hand was a lightsaber of his own. “Tell me we didn’t come all this way for a nobody who was dead when we got here?”

Jason shook his head. “I still feel the dark presence on the station. This was probably an apprentice.”

“Our guy had students?” Leo wondered.

“The Sith are always looking for those with talent,” Jason explained. “This one was probably sent out to deal with the intruders, and lost his life in the attempt.”

Piper reach down and grabbed the lightsaber. It flashed to life in her grip, shining a sinister red for a just a moment, before she switched it off again. “Neat,” she said, tucking the weapon into her jacket. “This might come in handy later.”

Jason would have protested–a lightsaber was extremely dangerous to an untrained wielder. He didn’t get the chance.

At the far end of the room, the blast door groaned. Jason felt a surge of anger through the Force as the three of them turned, weapons drawn.

 _“I was wondering how long it would take you to get here.”_ A man’s voice echoed through chamber, carried by the facility’s loudspeaker. Jason inhaled sharply. It was a voice he’d grown very, very familiar with over the last few weeks of research.

“You’re a difficult man to find,” he called back, not taking his eyes off the door. “But I’m nothing if not dedicated.” The creaking continued. Something was trying to open the door, and they weren’t using the controls to do it.

_“Clearly. But take a look at the last person who was determined to find me. Are you willing to risk ending up like him?”_

Jason spared a brief glance at the corpse behind them. That was one question solved. “It doesn’t have to come to that. I’m only here to find out the truth. Come out, so we can talk,” He inhaled again, deeply, and with less confidence than he would really prefer.

"Percy.”

Percy Jackson chuckled as the shriek of metal on metal filled the air, and the blast door slowly began to rise. _“Sorry, but I’ll have to pass. I’m a little a busy at the moment, and you have something else to take care of. There’s somebody here who’s very eager to meet you. After all, you’ve been making a mess of his station.”_

The blast door had risen more than three meters by now, and in the shadows of the next chamber, Jason could make out the silhouette of a hulking figure striding toward them.

_“I’m almost sorry to pass up this little reunion. He worked so hard to set it up, after all. But I have to be considerate of others, and he’s worth a lot to your friends, right? Well, I guess it’s payday.”_

The Sith Lord Asterion was frightful to look at: a mountain of muscle half again as tall as Jason, with hands the size of dinner platters and a pair of wicked looking horns emerging from his beastly head. All of that was nothing, however, next to the rage and hatred emanating from his soul, a black cloud that Jason almost wanted to physically shy away from. In his clawed fingers was a lightsaber, which ignited as the blast door slammed back down behind him. He assumed a fighting stance, and snarled at the three of them.

The amusement was audible in Percy Jackson’s voice.

_“He’s all yours, bounty hunters.”_


	9. Starkiller, Part 2: RULES OF NATURE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason's crew has their first boss fight. And that's pretty much it

For such an enormous being, Asterion was _fast_.

Their lightsabers met, and Jason almost had the breath knocked out of him by the force of the impact.

“More Jedi,” the creature snarled, “crawling through my station like the vermin they are.”

“You’re under arrest,” Jason said, because it was expected of him. “Surrender, and I guarantee you’ll get a fair trial.” Talking wasn’t easy when he was trying so hard not to get cut in half.

“Ha!” Asterion pushed, and Jason nearly tripped over the corpse on the floor. Thankfully, Piper and Leo provided a moment’s reprieve, opening fire and forcing the Sith Lord into a defensive stance. He shifted his posture and began to move again, deflecting the bolts as he moved toward Piper’s position. She fired again and again, to no avail. One hand was thrust out, and the bounty hunter found herself disarmed, the blaster wrenched from her grip by the unseen power of the Force..

One target now defenseless, Asterion went in for the kill. But Jason was fast too, and his violet saber forced the red one off to the side, allowing Piper to duck out of the way and–he hoped–retrieve her weapon.

“Can you not understand, Jedi?” Asterion’s voice was gravelly and rough, and Jason got the feeling he was being condescended to. “This is the trial. Mine, and yours.” He swung again, and Jason leapt back to avoid another overwhelming blow like before. “Skill and power determine the outcome, such are the rules of nature!” He pointed his lightsaber directly at Jason. “It is a lesson I will teach Perseus Jackson, once you fall.”

Jason felt his jaw clench. Sith loved their speeches.

“You’re gonna be the world’s first teaching ghost, sleemo!” Leo fired at Asterion’s feet, and then jumped as the Sith batted the bolts back at him. A rough shove to his midsection forced Jason back.

“Bounty hunters,” Asterion said disdainfully, striding in Leo’s direction now, “harvesting the waste of the galaxy for small profit. Another fool who could never hope to challenge true power.” The Sith charged at Leo, bringing his saber high. Jason was too far away this time.

But momentum was a double-edged blade, and Asterion couldn’t turn quite fast enough to dodge or deflect the blaster bolt Piper sent into his left shoulder. It didn’t do much; the monster’s skin was clearly as formidable as his saber technique. But Piper hadn’t been trying for a kill shot. The hit was a distraction, one Leo used to put some distance between himself and his attacker.

The three of them regrouped, with the bounty hunters flanking Jason.

“This might be tougher than we thought,” Piper said.

“You cannot win,” Asterion declared. “This fight only delays your inevitable end. I had expected better from the great Hero of Thyferra.”

Jason had always hated that nickname. He _really_ hated it coming out of a Sith’s mouth.

Fighting defensively wasn’t getting him anywhere. It was time for offense. As he broke into a sprint, he thought back to his earliest lessons with Master Lupa. _‘His size is his greatest asset,_ ’ her old advice whispered in his mind, _‘make it yours.’_

Jason ducked underneath a sweep of the red lightsaber, darting around Asterion’s back. He took a swing at his opponent’s legs, which almost connected. This Sith was large, and his weapon was longer to accommodate, but there was an upper limit to how big a lightsaber could be. Asterion had more body than he could reliably defend from three directions. And with his lightsaber occupied holding off Jason’s…

A flurry of bolts struck the Sith Lord in his back, and he roared in pain. One hadn’t done the trick, but multiple hits took their toll. Asterion’s strikes were just that little bit slower, giving Jason a brief opening to get in a glancing blow to his opponent’s side. With a cry of rage, Asterion lashed out with the Force, shoving Jason back headfirst into a shipping container.

The impact made Jason’s vision go blurry for a moment. It was probably pure luck his neck hadn’t been injured. When he looked back up, Asterion was swinging wildly at Leo again, and Jason had to take a second to make sure he wasn’t seeing things, because the Sith seemed to be on fire. _‘Flamethrower. Right, they mentioned it before.’_ Piper had both of her pistols drawn, and was circling around, firing whenever Asterion drew his arm up for another blow. Staggering to his feet, Jason ignited his lightsaber again, barely arriving in time to intercept a blow that probably would have put Piper short an arm.

Asterion had been hit a dozen times, and he’d been set on fire on top of that. But he was a Sith, and pain would only make him angry. Anger would only invite the Dark Side farther in. And that darkness drove him forward, like a rancor on the hunt.

“Piper!” Leo called out as he ran past, “come help me with this!” The blasterfire slowed as Piper joined her partner. Whatever the plan was, Jason really hoped they were quick about it. ‘Enraged, flaming Sith’ wasn’t something he was having a good time with.

The last time he’d faced an enemy this ferocious had been two years before, on the bridge of Lord Krios’ ship in the skies above Thyferra. It was an unpleasant reminder that the Sith, however shortsighted and driven by base impulse, were never to be underestimated. All the oneness the Force had to offer might not be enough to keep Jason’s head on his shoulders for much longer.

“Your allies abandon you, Jedi!” Asterion taunted as the flames finally extinguished, leaving blackened skin and the smell of burned fur. “They’re the wiser, I think.”

Jason pushed back as much as he could, but he was pretty sure he had a mild concussion, and Asterion was so _strong..._ Their lightsabers clashed again, and Asterion didn’t let up, forcing both blades closer and closer to Jason. He could smell the fibers of his tunic start to singe as the sabers drew nearer. His arms were getting weaker.

“How fast do you think those insects can run?” Asterion asked mockingly. “Rest assured, they won’t make it off the station. I’ll present them with your head before I kill them; a fitting fate for those who resist the might of the Dark Side!”

The lightsaber was so close now. Jason didn’t have the strength to repel it. For the first time, he considered that he might not leave this place alive.

But apparently the Force wasn’t done with him just yet, as two tons of durasteel abruptly came flying out of nowhere, slamming into the Asterion and sending Jason falling back as the Sith was roughly pushed into several stacks of crates, burying him and his assailant under a small mountain of plasteel and spare parts.

Jason didn’t have time to process whatever had just happened before he felt himself being pulled back up. He looked at Piper in abject confusion as he caught his breath. “Wha…?”

Leo whistled from the corner of the bay, with some kind of remote in his hands. Jason realized that the loader droid that had sat there was now missing.

Piper grinned. “I guess Czerka didn’t bother cleaning this place out when they left,” she said. “Leo can get just about anything working again.” She eyed the scene in front of them. Every so often, a crate would tumble off the top of the pile, spilling whatever contents were still inside at their feet. “What do you think are the odds he got impaled on something sharp and won’t be getting up again?” she asked, half joking.

“Four hundred and seventy thousand to one,” Leo said as he rejoined them, “give or take.”

“Ugh. You didn’t have to say it.”

“You didn’t have to ask.”

“That was a good trick,” Jason said with a weak smile. “Just in time, too; I was almost done for.”

“Lucky for you,” Leo replied, “I don’t charge extra for heroic rescues.”

Piper nodded. “We should start adding that as a line item.”

A roar came from within the pile, sending boxes and debris flying. The three went for their weapons as Asterion burst forth, unarmed and howling in unchecked fury.

“Yeah,” Leo said nervously, “if we make it that long.”

Jason didn’t have time to raise his blade before Asterion was on them. He barreled into Leo, knocking him to the floor without notice, and backhanded Piper into the heap from which he’d just emerged. Nor could Jason do anything to defend himself as one great hand wrapped around his neck, pulling him up into the air. He felt his lightsaber fall from his grasp as he was slammed up against the container behind him and his airflow was cut off.

From the floor, Leo tried to raise his blaster, only to get sent tumbling across the floor when the Sith's gigantic boot caught him in the chest.

Turning back to Jason, Asterion growled in disgust and outrage. “You miserable wretch!” he snarled, “I have indulged this long enough!” His grip on Jason’s throat tightened, and Jason realized he meant to snap his neck. Slowly. “You have no idea what you’ve stumbled into! A new era is about to begin for this galaxy. The Jedi Temple will burn, and your Republic will crumble! You, however, will never see it. Die now, speck!”

Jason’s vision swan and his vertebrae creaked under the overwhelming pressure on his neck. His muscles, starved for oxygen, stopped struggling. It was all starting to go dark. It was all…

...red?

The next thing Jason knew, he was the floor, clutching at his sore throat and gasping for air. There were spots dancing across his eyes. One was particularly persistent; it seemed to hover in front of his face, long and thin and red. All of a sudden, it vanished, receding out of sight with an ever familiar _snap-hiss_. Out of the corner of his eye, Jason finally noticed Asterion, lying motionless on the floor beside him.

There was a smoking hole on either side of the Sith Lord’s head, just below his horns.

“See?” Piper asked, exhausted, as the pilfered lightsaber fell from her fingers, “I told you it would come in handy, didn't I?”

 


	10. You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get worse for pretty much everybody.

“Are you gonna be okay?” Piper asked, looking uneasily at Jason’s throat.

He brought up a hand to his neck, and winced. There would a nasty bruise. “I’ll be alright,” Jason croaked. He felt pretty miserable, but he was alive, and so were his friends. Considering how close the fight had been, that was all that mattered. “That was good thinking, with the lightsaber.” She flashed him a thumbs up.

Leo limped over to them, rubbing at his left arm. “Let’s...let’s not do that again. That sucked.” He eyed the corpse warily. “Is he really done this time? Because, y’know, he’s played dead before.”

“I don’t think he’s getting up,” Piper assured her partner as she rose up on shaky legs. “His brain’s gotta be pretty cooked. Come on, let’s get those samples.”

“Can we blow up the body after? You know, just to be sure?”

“Leo, don’t be ridiculous. We’re gonna cut off his head, we don’t need to get excessive.”

Jason had to smile, despite the blithe talk of decapitation. This was a hard-won victory, he wouldn’t begrudge them their jokes.

Piper’s lightsaber snapped back to life, and she brought it down on Asterion’s thick neck. It took a moment, since she wasn’t trained and the body was pretty durable, but the saber won out in the end, and the head came off. The hunters gingerly rolled it into a sack, which Piper slung over her shoulder.

Jason made a face. “Don’t most bounty hunters just scan the bodies?”

“Most of the time,” Leo explained, “but this is a special case. They’re gonna want more proof. So, are you good to move? We should finish up here before this thing starts to smell.”

Jason pushed himself up off the floor. His head was pounding, and he probably needed medical attention, but it didn’t matter. He still had a job to do. “I’m okay,” he said, only a little bit lying. “How far to Operations?”

“There should be a turbolift on the other side of that door,” Leo said as he consulted his schematic. “I’ll see if I can get it open. Hope headless over there didn’t kark up the hydraulics with his little party trick.” While he poked at the door’s control console, Piper sidled up to Jason.

“So, Big Hero just sicced a Sith on us,” she said awkwardly.

“He did.” Jason felt a deep dismay at this turn of events. Percy Jackson had fallen far indeed.

“Now, I know we’re all feeling pretty incredible after what we just pulled off, but, uh, that fight took a lot out of us.”

“It did.” He was sure that had been Jackson's goal: to play his pursuers and his oldest foe against one another. “You don't have to come with me for this.”

“What, and let you go up there by yourself?” she asked incredulously. “You look like you can barely stand right now!”

He shook his head. “It's not quite that bad.” He had faith in the Force to see him through this. “This isn’t over yet. I have to keep going, I've still got work to do here.”

Piper sighed. “Then I guess we do too. No way you're taking him down alone.”

“We're coming with,” Leo agreed. “Assuming I can get this lousy—huh?” The mechanisms creaked as they began raising the blast door.

“Good work,” said Jason.

Leo frowned. “That wasn’t me.”

Piper smiled bitterly. “We’re expected.”

It was a short walk to the nearest bank of turbolifts, but it felt much longer with all their injuries. Jason’s head still needed to be seen to, as did Leo’s ribs. Piper was relatively fine, but the weight of the enormous head she carried was tiring her out. But when they did reach the lifts, and Jason offered them one last chance to return to the ship, the bounty hunters again declined. “You helped us get what we wanted,” Piper said, “it’s only right to return the favor.” Jason felt briefly ashamed for ever doubting them.

If the walk from the cargo bay had felt longer than it was, the ride up to the control module felt like a lifetime. The droids, the Sith, they had all been distractions. His true goal was in sight now.

The turbolift came to a stop, and the door slid open. One way or another, his mission was almost over.

“It’s just ahead. We take a right at the end of this corridor,” Leo said, unholstering his blaster.

They took it slowly, caution winning out over impatience. Their boots echoed on the durasteel floor of the corridor. There was no sign of anyone else; no droids, no soldiers, no Sith. And no Jedi. It was as though the battles below hadn’t touched this place.

The path was blocked by a locked door. But just as before, Leo couldn’t even begin tinkering with the controls before it slid open on its own. Only this time, their raised weapons were actually pointing at something.

“Stop! Wait! I surrender!” It was a human, dressed in light armor. He was unarmed, breathing heavily, and clearly terrified. He held up his empty hands and looked like he might faint from fear. “I did what he asked, please don’t kill me?”

“Who are you?” Jason demanded, pointing his saber at the man’s throat. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, please! I beg you, mercy!” The man didn’t seem to have noticed the questions at all.

Piper furrowed her brow, and lowered her weapon. “It’s alright,” she said, taking one step forward, “just calm down.” Jason’s nose caught a slight, sweet smell as she spoke. Leo seemed to catch on, and lowered his own blaster. “Nobody’s gonna hurt you. We just need you to explain what’s going on for us.”

Her words seemed to work. Or rather, her Zeltron pheromones seemed to work. “The-the Jedi!” the man gasped out. “I mean, the other Jedi. He barged into the control center right after Lord Asterion went down to storage. He said–oh, he said the lord was going to be dead soon, but he’d let us go if we didn’t get in his way.” He bit back a sob. “I threw down my rifle and ran. I recognized that Jedi. I knew we couldn’t win. But the others, I-I think they’re still in there!” He pointed one shaking arm down the hallway. “Main control is that way. Whatever you want is going to be in there.” His face crumbled, and tears started leaking from his eyes. “Please, please let me go!”

Jason switched off his saber. The man was clearly too pathetic to be a threat.

“Thank you,” Piper said kindly. She stepped off to one side. “If you have a way off the station, you should probably use it.”

The crying man shuffled past, glancing nervously at the three of them as he did so. One he was clear of them, he whimpered and broke into a run, disappearing out of sight down a side passage.

Jason watched him go in disbelief. “Two years ago, a Sith soldier was capable of things that would give a Jedi Master nightmares,” he said with disgust. “And now, I’m pretty sure I just watched one soil himself.”

Leo shrugged. “It must be tough to be a has-been.” He readied his weapon once again. “At least we know Jackson’s up ahead.”

They met no other deserters on their way through the complex. Nor were there any droids to try and stop their advance. No corpses, either. Everyone must have been in the control room, or had been sent to the lower levels to deal with the intruders. Distantly, Jason remembered that Annabeth Chase was here was well. He wondered if she had reached Jackson yet; if whatever bond they shared was bringing them together, or putting them at odds. If he’d be facing one fallen Jedi, or two

When they finally arrived at the doors to the Operations center, there was no lock to keep them out. From the outside, there was no, sign of trouble at all. It was quiet. Peaceful. But when Jason reached in with the Force, he sensed nothing but cold, and the vaguest whisper of pain. And when the door slid open to admit them, he quickly saw the reason why.

The first body was just in front of them. A Zabrak man, still clutching his blaster rifle, with a charred crater where his windpipe had once been. A human was just a few feet away, sprawled on her back across a computer console. Another had been impaled through the chest after losing a hand. In all, Jason could see more than a dozen bodies from where he stood.

Standing at the wide holoprojector in the center of the room, the sole living occupant typed away at the controls, paying no mind to Jason and the others, or to the carnage around them all.

Percy Jackson had forgone his Jedi robes in favor of faded black trousers and a leatheris jacket similar to what Piper wore. His lightsaber remained, however, hanging from his belt. His back was to them, and his posture suggested that if he’d noticed them all––and Jason knew he had––then he wasn’t concerned in the slightest.

That wouldn’t do.

“Percy Jackson,” Jason called out, thanking the Force that his voice didn’t convey how lousy he felt.

Jackson didn’t respond at once. He kept typing for a few moments, engrossed in whatever it was he was looking at, before pulled what looked like a datacard from the terminal and tucked it into his belt. Only then did he turn, and at long last was face to face with Jason.

It wasn’t a particularly distinctive face. Reasonably good-looking by human standards; clean shaven, green eyes, with a mop of black hair on top. The face of a perfectly normal young man, one you might see on the streets of thousands of worlds, with no hint as to what he was capable of. He grinned when he saw them, like they were old friends he hadn’t seen in a while. He even gave them a little wave.

“Hey guys,” he said in a pleasant tone that put Jason on edge. “I was watching on the monitors. Nice job finally giving that scum what he deserved.”

Piper and Leo didn’t seem to appreciate the compliment. “Give me one good reason not to shoot you right now,” Leo said, taking aim. Piper’s own blaster was also leveled at Jackson’s head.

Jackson shook his head and sighed. “Rude.”

“And what do you call siccing that monster on us?” Piper asked him.

Jackson shrugged. “Making everybody happy at once? You’ll get paid, the Jedi will get to cross a dangerous enemy off the list, and _I_ got the satisfaction of watching that sick freak _finally_ get what was coming to him. It almost makes all this,” he gestured to the room and the corpses around them, “worth it.”

“I’m glad you got what you wanted,” Jason said, “but now you’re coming with me.”

“Hmmm,” Jackson hummed, stroking his chin, “no. No, I don’t think I will be, sorry.” He offered an apologetic smile. “I’ve got things to do.”

Jason’s lightsaber lit up. “I wasn’t making a request. Don’t make this hard for yourself.”

Rather than being at all cowed, Jackson laughed. Full-on, tossing-his-head-back _laughed_. “Oh man,” he said fondly, wiping at his eyes, “that’s a good one. You say that like it ever _stops_ being hard.” He was still smiling, but it was different now. Predatory. He slipped his own weapon from its place on his belt. “But if you feel like you haven’t quite gotten the snot beaten out of you…” a blue blade sprang into life as the lightsaber activated. “...I’m happy to help with that!”

Jackson pushed at them with his left hand, and Piper and Leo were sent flying back into the corridor with a cry. Jason didn’t have time to worry about them, though. By the time the doors slammed shut, Jackson was on him.

Of the two, Jason was bigger, and he had the greater reach. Of the two, Jackson wasn’t injured, or seemingly even tired, despite the massacre he’d carried out just minutes before, in this very room. Jason had no choice but to fight defensively this time; if he didn’t conserve his strength, he was a dead man.

Percy Jackson, on the other hand, was not nearly so conservative. He swung with the careless abandon of a leisurely session with a temple training droid. A tap at Jason’s left arm was deflected, only to arc around towards his left leg. Jackson flowed around Jason like a river, batting away Jason’s blows with graceful thoughtlessness before forcing him back with a jab toward the midsection.

Jason’s foot connected with something–a body, he confirmed with a quick look–and he tucked into a roll to avoid a slash as he fell. A swipe at his waist had him spinning around a workstation, and Jackson’s blade sheared off the top of the desk. The computer shrieked as it was sliced in two, showering Jason in sparks. Twisting away from a stab, Jason brough his blade down on Jackson’s, embedding them both in the durasteel. Jackson grinned at him over their locked sabers. “You’re good,” he said breathlessly. Jason didn’t respond, pulling his weapon up and going for Jackson’s elbow. But the other man was quick, spinning away and reappearing at Jason’s left.

It wasn’t a blade Jackson swung at him this time, but an empty palm. Jason had paid too much attention to the lightsaber, and he was too slow to prevent the strike from meeting his jaw. Jackson pressed the attack, disregarding his weapon and bringing a knee right up into Jason’s diaphragm. As the air left his lungs, Jason felt the lightsaber being wrenched from his grip. Now disarmed and disoriented, he was powerless to avoid Jackson’s fist, and a blow to the side of the head put him on his back. Just like that, the blue blade was back, its tip at Jason’s throat.

He’d lost.

Jackson grinned down at him like a firaxan shark, all sharp teeth and cruel eyes. “Well,” he said, “that was fun. But the game’s over, Jason. You can stay down and live. But try to keep fighting and I’ll kill you.”

“Why-” Jason gasped, “why did you do this?”

Jackson looked down at him like he was a youngling asking a particularly stupid question. “Because I wanted to.”

“You...you’re a Jedi!”

That protest seemed to affect Jackson more than any other: his face went stony, unreadable. “Not anymore,” he snarled. “Never again.”

“Percy!” A new voice?

From out of nowhere, a lightsaber blade of gleaming yellow swung up, knocking away Jackson’s, who swore in response.

The attacker lunged at him, and into Jason’s field of vision. Her long blonde hair was pulled back, swinging behind her as she brought her weapon to bear. The situation had flipped; now Jackson was the one on the defensive.

Annabeth Chase spared a moment to look over at Jason as the blue and yellow blades clashed. “Get out of here!” she yelled. “There's no time left!”

Hands on his biceps roughly pulled Jason off the floor. “Wha…?”

“You good?” Leo asked him. Jason looked about in confusion beofre spotting the door they’d been thrown out. A section had been cut away, the edges still faintly glowing.

“We need to go,” Piper said insistently. “We need to go right now.”

“I can’t,” Jason protested weakly. He could hardly move.

“Jason, listen to me, you’re done,” Piper told him. “And we have to go. She just showed us. We’ve got ships incoming–and they’re not here to help.”

“It’s the one from before,” said Leo, “and they brought friends.” He grimaced. “They’re charging weapons; this whole place is about to go up in flames.”

Jason looked over to the fight still raging. Chase had pushed Jackson to the other side of the room, maneuvering him toward a doorway in the far wall. His instincts cried out for him to follow, but it was no use. Every part of him ached. He wouldn’t stand a chance now.

“Okay,” he said, bitterly. “Let’s go.”

*******

“How many ships?” Jason asked as they ran.

“Half a dozen,” Leo replied. “Chase said the Mandos radioed her as soon as she unjammed the comms. The ships are on the far side of the asteroid belt; if we’re fast, they may not even see us.”

Jason cursed under his breath. Not only had he lost Jackson and Chase, but even more Sith–or whatever the dark presence he’d sense actually was–had chosen that moment to move in for the kill. It stung; he’d never had a mission go quite so wrong before. The shame of failing--of being beaten--gnawed at him.

The first tremors started rocking the station just as they reached the airlock. The Sith had arrived. Fortunately, Festus had kept the engines primed, so takeoff was no issue. Leo took the pilot’s seat as Piper and Jason once again manned the turrets. On the way to Alderaan, they’d been taken by surprise. This time, they had a lead, and no intention of fighting if they could help it.

But the Sith didn’t seem interested in fighting either. Six cruisers, all of similar make to the one they’d encountered before, opened fire on the asteroid, with no attention paid to the freighter flying away. A seventh was moving away, back toward the edge of the system.

The cruisers poured all their firepower into the asteroid. Surface compartments popped open in clouds of flame and shrapnel as the rock around them melted to slag. Cracks spread across the surface from the points of impact as the asteroid’s structural integrity unraveled. Finally, the ships’ turbolasers found whatever mark they’d been aiming for–fuel reserves, Jason guessed–and a chain reaction raced through the heart of the station, shredding everything manmade and tearing the asteroid to pieces.

As the debris cloud slowly expanded, the cruisers turned away, jumping back into hyperspace one by one. There was no sign of the Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase or the Mandalorians. The engine whined, the hyperdrive hummed to life, and the turret viewport turned opaque as they jumped.

The lights on the weapon controls blinked out. Jason was left, once again, in the dark.


	11. Interlude 2: The View From Outside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Certain people lick their wounds, and plan their next move.

> **To: Col. Goro Sej, Alderaan Station Chief, Republic Strategic Information Service**
> 
> **CC: Master Pallas Athena, Jedi Council**
> 
> **“Update on Sith Activity in Alderaan Sector”**
> 
> **Casefile #247-699-62**
> 
> **Filed by Agent Bryce Lawrence, SIS**
> 
> **We’ve begun examining the wreckage in star system 37553-Trill. In-depth analysis is still pending, but preliminary findings support Jedi Grace’s story regarding the destruction of the derelict mining facility. Damage to the station is consistent with warship-grade energy weapons [see attachment “Recovered Materials: Metallurgical Analysis”]. Organic samples were also recovered from the debris, and are currently undergoing testing [see attachment “Recovered Materials: Biological”].**
> 
> **As previously reported, no data storage or communication logs have yet been recovered from the station. The wreckage of the corvette yielded a partially intact navicomputer, and attempts to reconstruct the ship's navigation logs are ongoing [see attachment “Recovered Materials: Information Technology”].**
> 
> **Per SIS protocol, the system has been placed under quarantine. As of this writing, no attempt has been made by any party to breach the perimeter. Given the system's isolation, no cover story or diversionary operation has been deemed necessary at this time.**
> 
>  

*******

“We’ve all had a chance to read the report?”

The ten figures, and one hologram, nodded in unison.

In all her years as a member, Hestia was hard pressed to think of more than a handful of times she had seen her colleagues on the Jedi High Council so uniformly solemn. Even at the height of the war against Kronos’ Sith, there had nearly always been an air of confidence—some might even have called it arrogance—in this chamber, as though they all knew that, together, there was no problem that they could not overcome.

Master Juno spoke up first. “Jason Grace’s testimony doesn’t explain everything, but what we do have is clear.”

Jupiter nodded. “Perseus Jackson has betrayed us.” If she didn’t know better, Hestia might have sworn the temperature dropped at the Grand Master’s words.

But not everyone was so certain.

“We have yet to know for sure,” Athena said, her voice tinny through the holoprojector. “I’ve only barely begun examining the station’s wreckage. And the autopsies from the Denon site—”

“—are still pending,” Asclepius interjected. “Until conclusive proof is found we can make no such judgement.”

“And what about his attack on Grace?” Belonna asked. “That seems conclusive enough.”

Prometheus nodded. “I agree. He’s lured one Jedi into a trap already, and nearly killed him.”

“But by Grace’s own account, he didn’t,” Osiris pointed out, ever the stickler for accuracy. “And there’s the matter of the Commenor Run attack to consider. Given the probability that Jackson was the intercessor, there’s too many questions about his intentions still up in the air.”

“I should think it obvious,” Prometheus said. “Grace was a useful pawn against the Sith. Jackson used him to take care of Asterion and then turned on him when he had no further use for him.”  

“That sounds rather...calculating,” Ceres noted, casually examining one of her vines. “You would expect a mission of revenge to be more personal, considering the boy’s prior behavior..”

“Safe to assume that had something to do with whatever he was doing on that terminal when Grace’s team found him,” suggested Heimdall. “Though I can’t see what might be important enough for him to walk away from his family’s killer for.” He gestured to one of his sightless, vestigial eyes to drive the pun home.

“That’s what I hope to discover,” Athena replied. “If any of the station’s data systems survived.”

“What about the ship?” Bellona asked. “Asterion’s corvette?”

Athena shrugged. “Its storage drives were wiped out by a power surge. Nothing to be done about that. But the navicomputer was partially intact; SIS is working to rebuild it as we speak. If nothing else, I imagine it will help us learn what Asterion was up to these last few years.”

“And where these cruisers are coming from.” Juno’s brow furrowed. “Curious that they waited until Asterion was dead to reappear.”

“Sith infighting,” Jupiter said disdainfully, “the one thing they truly excel at. We’ll deal with them in time.” He turned to Athena. “What about Chase? Have we learned how she was able to hire the Mandalorians? Or those bounty hunters?”

Athena’s hologram shifted uncomfortably, and Hestia felt a pang of sympathy. This couldn’t be easy for Athena to discuss. “I’ve had her father and brothers under surveillance since this began. If she’s contacted them, it’s been too subtle to trace. Their financial records are clean as well; wherever those credits came from, it wasn’t her family.”

Ceres snorted. “So, to review: We still have two missing Jedi, of uncertain means and motive, one of whom is a very credible murder suspect and other being a complete wildcard.” She held up one finger for every fact she rattled off. “We have an unknown number of Sith, of unknown strength, moving through the galaxy with total impunity for unknown reasons. Have I left anything out so far?”

“Rachel Dare,” Master Thoth reminded them, as he did with some frequency. “She’s involved in this as well. Not the first time, I’ll point out.” His beak twitched in irritation. “Her involvement in the theft of—”

“We are aware,” Jupiter said, cutting the other Master off before he could begin ranting in earnest.

Hestia suppressed a giggle. Even after two years, Thoth was so offended by the disappearance of a certain holocron that he’d never properly put together what had happened. Not that she planned to enlighten him;  _ that _ had been the will of the Force, and she’d sworn not to interfere.

“She’s still on Alderaan,” Juno said. “I’m told she’s booked accomodations for a lengthy stay. We could send someone to question her.”  _ ‘Assuming she doesn’t give us the slip again’ _ went unsaid.

Jupiter shook his head. “Grace is on his way back to the planet as we speak. It may be prudent to allow that situation to develop naturally. There’s another, more pressing matter that requires our attention.”

“The di Angelo boy,” Hecate said quietly. He smile was dark against the rest of her face, the hood of her robe casting a shadow over her pale Umbaran complexion to create an unsettling image that Hestia privately suspected the other woman kept up just for amusement. “He walks the shadowed path, pulling at threads that others would not.”

“Well, this last thread was the final straw,” said Osiris. “The incident at the spaceport has the Alderaanians in an uproar. They want him prosecuted for terrorism.” He turned to face Heimdall and Prometheus. “Do we have any idea where he’s gone?” 

Heimdall shook his head. “He’s always been good at hiding,” the Miraluka said apologetically. “I felt something that  _ might _ be him, but it was far away. The Outer Rim, even.”

Hestia cocked an eyebrow. “That’s quite a long way from where he was last seen,” she said. “It’s only been a few days. Could he have moved that quickly?” What was sweet little Nico up to now?

“We’ve never figured out how he does much of anything,” Juno said, “so anything is possible.”

“Mysteries on mysteries,” said Hecate. “And no answers in sight.”

Jupiter frowned. “They can’t stay hidden forever,” he said with certainty. “We will get to the bottom of this, one way or another." He sighed. "And the sooner the better. I’ve received word from the Minister; the Department of Law is about to issue a public warrant for di Angelo. And for Jackson and Chase.”

Osiris sat up indignantly. “They agreed to wait for the Council’s recommendation!”

“That was before,” Prometheus said. “A spaceport held hostage, a station destroyed, a Sith fleet roaming unchecked? The Republic can no longer afford to wait.”

“Someone needs to tell Chiron,” Asclepius said. “He deserves to hear it from us.”

Hestia held up a hand. “I’ll do it,” she offered. Force knew this needed a sensitive touch, and while she loved the people around her, she freely admitted that they could sometimes be, well,  _ jerks _ . She could at least soften the blow a little.

“Very well,” Jupiter said with a nod. He stood, looking around the room. “I’ll remind all of you, this is not a defeat. It’s a setback. We have a talented Jedi Knight in the field, and the Force  _ is _ with us.”

Hestia hoped he was right.

*******

The first thing that stood out about the box was the color of the stone. To Hazel, at least. Others would note the size, over two meters in length. Or the writing carved into the surfaces, a language that hadn’t been widely spoken in centuries. To Hazel, though, it was that shade of red. It wasn’t anything unusual to the untrained eye, but Hazel knew it as soon as she saw it.

“How’d you get it off Korriban?” 

Professor Carter Kane, the youngest accredited faculty member in the history of the Obroa-skai Archeological Academy, and an unparallelled expert in Sith history (by the standards of anybody who  _ wasn’t  _ Hazel herself), simply shrugged. “I didn’t. The Republic has that whole sector under quarantine. Anyone who wants to do a study has to go through eight different subcommittee hearings and a series of interviews with the Jedi Council. I got it from a smuggler who recognized the carvings and wanted to get it somewhere safe. He took it to my sister, and my sister brought it to me. It’s over 1500 years old. The writing says it belonged to–”

“Darth Phageinus,” Hazel finished for Carter, having already translated the inscriptions on her own. “Head of the Sphere of Logistics for 38 years before he was assassinated by a rival.” He must have been wealthy, too, to be buried in stone from Korriban. The dating meant that the empire was still in exile during the man’s lifetime; any material from the Sith homeworld would have been extraordinarily precious.

“Right,” Carver rubbed the back of his neck, “I’m used to being the only one in a room who can read this stuff.”

“How do you know it’s real?” Frank asked, ever the pragmatist. “Smugglers and pirates aren’t exactly the trustworthy type.”

“It’s real,” Hazel said confidently. She could feel it. Carter nodded as well.

“I did a thorough scan. The body’s Pureblood Sith, no doubt about it. The reading matches for the crystal, too. And I’ve tried a hundred different ways to open it. No luck.”

Hazel smiled. “You just need the right key.” Holding out her hand, she drew the Force through her, and into the box. The old Sith had taken measures to protect their secret places from graverobbers and scientists. They never worked in the long run, but they might confound for a century or two before a solution was devised. Through the Force, Hazel felt out the various traps and safeguards. A hidden mechanism here, an explosive trigger there. One by one, she shoved them aside and rendered them harmless. The process was laborious, and she couldn’t say exactly how long it took. Frank never left her side, and Carter watched with great interest. By the time it was over, Hazel had neutralized well over a dozen different defense systems, and she felt the lid of the sarcophagus come loose.

“It’s done,” she said. “It’s safe to open.”

Frank and Carter grabbed the heavy stone slab at either end, pushing it far enough to the side that Hazel could get a look at the contents.

The former Darth Phageinus had been well preserved. The flesh was shriveled and desiccated, but retained a measure of the red coloration typical to the Purebloods. He’d been buried in his finest robes, blue and black silk trimmed with what looked like real gold. And there, over the chest, still clutched in those withered fingers, lay the prize she’d come all this way for.

The medallion was just over nine centimeters in diameter. The black surface had been carved with a number of beasts native to Sith space; shyrack, tuk’ata, hssiss. Across the top half stretched the terrifying visage of a terentatek, great Force-sensitive monsters from whom even a Sith might flee. It was an exquisite example of Golden Age Sith artistry, the kind that hadn’t been made since they’d been forced from their ancestral worlds in the aftermath of the Great Hyperspace War. And at the very center, embedded in the pendant, was a blood-red Qixoni crystal the size of Hazel’s thumbnail.

“Is it...safe?” Frank asked, eyeing the medallion warily.

“The crystal’s been imbued with the Dark Side,” Hazel replied as she reached out with the Force, “but I don’t think we’re in any danger. It’s just jewelry.” She reached into the coffin and wrenched the medallion from Phageinus’ skeletal grasp. Carter winced and made a noise of dismay as a couple of fingers were also pulled loose. Holding it up by the silver chain, Hazel took a closer look at the gem. It was just the right size for use in a lightsaber. Phageinus, or whoever had originally made the medallion, had probably taken it from the weapon of a defeated opponent, and chosen to wear it rather than making practical use of it themselves; a symbol of power and affluence.

“Will it work?” Carter asked her.

Hazel smiled to herself. “It’s perfect,” she said, turning back to the two men. “We’re officially in business.”

*******

The hum of the hyperdrive was his only companion as he gazed at the console, each moment putting a little more distance between him and the Sith hideout.

On the screen in front of him was what he’d worked so hard to get. Just over half a dozen names—all that remained of the once mighty Sith Order. He’d lied and sacrificed and passed up much-longed-for revenge to get this list. He’d made choices he’d never imagined, all for the sake of finding these people.

He’d hoped for a little more time before Annabeth caught up to him. He’d hoped for still more before the Jedi picked up the scent. His bandaged wrist was proof of how naive that hope had been. Jason Grace was no pushover, that was for sure.

Percy would have to be more careful from now on.

He scanned the list, looking for the most viable candidate. Annabeth almost certainly had a copy. There was a good chance that the Jedi did too—they’d all made it off the station. If nothing else, he would be safer assuming they all knew what he knew.  _ Most _ of what he knew, at any rate. He didn’t feel up for another confrontation so soon. One of the also-rans would have to do for now. And as for the Jedi… 

He pressed the intercom button, and a chime rang through the ship. From behind him, the cockpit door hissed, sliding open to admit the droid. Percy turned to face him.

“I have a job for you. Get ready.”

The droid’s photoreceptors lit up with what would have been glee in an organic.

“Declaration: It is about time! Systems are primed and assassination protocols are fully active!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Real" life got in the way of writing for a while. Back to Jason next chapter, hopefully with a much shorter wait.


	12. Let's Split Up, Gang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second act begins as Jason and friends get new information

“Well, that’s disappointing,” said Rachel Dare as she shook a bit of ash from the end of her cigarra. The smell of marcan herb was faint, and not totally unpleasant to Jason’s nose. 

After their escape from the asteroid, Jason and his friends had made their way back to Alderaan. They’d submitted the appropriate reports to the Jedi, and to the Republic Fleet. Rather that return to Coruscant, they’d chosen to return here, to redeem the bounty on the Sith Lord’s head, and to consult with their only reliable informant.

Rachel had taken up residence at the Chotoroth, a high-end hotel in Aldera, and seemed to have made herself very comfortable. With the exception of a small table and a couple of chairs, most of the luxurious sitting room furniture had been shoved off to the side, to make room for an easel and canvas, currently blank. Beyond that, every flat surface in the room had been taken up—bottles of expensive-looking paint, caf mugs with varying levels of emptiness, and a couple of ashtrays all littered the place.

Jason had politely refrained from comment, but it seemed pretty clear to him that Rachel was under a lot of stress. 

“But,” Rachel continued, “you’re certain he didn’t want to kill you?”

“That’s what he said,” Jason affirmed, “and he had the opportunity. I was completely at his mercy.” The humiliation still stung, but he couldn’t hide from it.

“So he’s pissed off about something, but not at you specifically,” Rachel mused. “That’s...something. Not sure what. You said he was collecting data, right?”

“He was, but we didn’t have time to check it before those ships showed up.” Now  _ that _ was the real disappointment in all this. Losing a fight was something Jason could cope with—he was still alive, after all—but whatever was on that datacard was something Percy Jackson had considered more important that revenge. And what could possibly matter more to a fallen Jedi than killing the person who’d ruined his life? Jason still had no idea, and the shame burned in his gut.

“There’s nothing we can do about that now,” Rachel said tiredly, “but I’ll pull some strings. Bet you anything Annabeth grabbed a copy.”

Jason frowned. Annabeth chase was the  _ other _ issue nagging at him. She’d made no further appearances either, and the Mandalorian mercenaries she’d accompanied had vanished back to the disorder of the Outer Rim without so much as a word. “We haven’t had any more luck tracking her down. She could be anywhere by now.” 

“I think we can narrow it down  _ a little _ ,” Rachel said truthfully, “there’s only so many places she’d be able to go. And only so many people who—huh.” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Now  _ that’s _ an idea. I’m losing my touch, I should have thought of her straight away.” She grabbed a datapad from off the table and began to type away.

“Thought of who?” Jason asked. Rachel didn’t answer, or look up from the pad. “Rachel? An idea about wh—”  _ Chirp! _ The chime of his commlink cut off his inquiry, but he didn’t let that dissuade him as he fumbled in his pocket for the little device. “I really think you should—”  _ Chirp! _ —”yes, I know, I’m getting to it!”  

“You should get that,” said Rachel, absorbed in whatever she was looking at.

Jason huffed, and brought the comm up to his ear. “What is it?” he demanded.

_ “Rude,” _ came a familiar voice, very dryly.

“Oh, uh, sorry Piper,” he said sheepishly, “just having a little,” he glanced back at Rachel, still paying him no mind, “conversational difficulty. What is it you need?”

_ “Festus is getting an incoming priority transmission for you,” _ Piper explained,  _ “from the Jedi Temple.” _

Jason winced. “I see,” he replied. With his luck it would be Master Jupiter himself, to berate Jason for his failures. Maybe to tell him he was being reassigned altogether. “Understood. Can you forward it to the hotel room holocomm?” Rachel only paused for a moment at that, sliding a small remote to him across the table before returning to her datapad without a word.

_ “Copy that,” _ said Piper. The commlink buzzed for a moment, and then fell silent as the room’s holoprojector, built into the light fixture in the ceiling above the easel, began to chime instead. As Jason manipulated the controls, the ambient light in the room dimmed, and the blue hologram sprang to life, shimmering in the air in front of him.

It was Master Chiron, but he wasn’t alone. Beside him, coming up to around Chiron’s chest, was an elderly, white-haired human man, standing placidly with his arms behind his back. 

Jason immediately bowed, as was standard when addressing a member of the Council. “Master Asclepius, Master Chiron,” he greeted them.

Asclepius nodded his acknowledgement, but it was Chiron who spoke first.  _ “Jason, it’s fortunate we were able to reach you. There have been new developments, and you need to be made aware.” _ The Master’s eyes darted to Rachel, still paying the proceedings no mind.  _ “Lady Dare, I’m glad to see you’re well.” _

Rachel made a noncommittal noise, and  _ still _ did not look up. Jason shrank a little at the blatant disrespect.

“She’s, eh, hard at work,” he said nervously, “tracking down a potential lead.” At least, Jason dearly hoped that was what she was doing, and not ordering room service, or doing some Holonet shopping, or whatever else it was that wealthy heiresses might do when they were ignoring two senior Jedi Masters.

_ “I’m sure,” _ said Chiron.  _ “Regardless, new information has reached us. The modified yacht you encountered on the Commennor Run, the one that Commander La Rue claimed that Percy was using...it’s been spotted.” _

Jason’s heart skipped a beat. “Where?”

_ “The Tobali system,” _ Chiron said.  _ “A surveyor was scanning for mineral deposits on one of the outer planets when they spotted the ship earlier today. It was headed straight for Rhen Var.” _

“Rhen Var?” Jason wracked his brain. The name was familiar, but he couldn’t place it…

“Ice ball on the Outer Rim,” Rachel said unexpectedly from behind him, eyes still firmly on whatever she was reading. “Jedi and Sith go stomping through every so often. It’s apparently a good place to kill each other.”

_ “Quite right,” _ Chiron concurred dryly,  _ “Rhen Var has a long history with our Order, and with the Sith. Ulic Qel-Droma resided there after his fall from power, and the Empire seized it near the end of the Great Galactic War. No permanent settlements, but every so often there are pilgrimages to Qel-Droma’s tomb.” _

“Anything that might interest Jackson?” Jason’s mind was racing at lightspeed, wondering how long it might take to get Piper and Leo and plot a course for the Tobali system. If he was quick enough…

Chiron shook his head. _ “Nothing that we know of. A few well-documented artifacts, some statues. But if he went there, it  _ must _ have been for some reason beyond the historical.” _

Jason nodded sharply. “I understand, Master. I’ll prepare to leave immediately.”

Chiron held up a hand.  _ “I’m afraid there’s one more thing,” _ he said.  _ “Another Jedi has gone missing.”  _

“What!?”

Chiron sighed. “I’ll let Master Asclepius explain.”

Asclepius stepped forward, inclining his head ever so slightly before beginning.  _ “It’s true,” _ he said grimly,  _ “we’ve completely lost contact with my apprentice, Will Solace.” _

Jason knew Will. Not well, but the padawan was very gifted in the healing arts, frequently left in charge of treating less serious injuries at the Temple, and they’d had occasion to speak once or twice when Jason needed medical attention. He was a good guy; friendly, though prone to get pushy when he felt you weren’t taking adequate care of yourself. “Tell me what happened.”

_ “A little over a month ago, I sent Will on a solo mission to the Tion Cluster,” _ explained Asclepius. _ “He was to deliver a supply of reagents critical to the treatment of Ardroxian Flu, and oversee treatment for an outbreak of the disease on the planet Livien.” _ The Master sighed.  _ “Everything went smoothly, and he was preparing to turn the program over to local authorities and return to Coruscant, until four days ago. He failed to send a scheduled report. The next day, the governor of Livien contacted us, and said that Will had vanished without a trace.” _

Jason mulled over the information for a moment. “You suspect foul play?”

_ “It’s not like him to leave his post without so much as a word,” _ said Asclepius. _ “And Will’s a superb healer, but his combat skills are average at best. The Liviens said there was no sign of a struggle, but an ambush could very well have subdued him before he could react.” _

“I see…” If Jason was remembering his astrography lessons correctly, Rhen Var was only a short distance from Livien. Depending on the ship, three days was more than enough time to make it from the one to the other. “You believe there’s a connection,” he surmised.

Chiron nodded.  _ “We’re assuming so, for the moment.” _

_ “I’ve ordered a Jedi Knight in the area to head to Livien,” _ Asclepius said.  _ “She’ll handle the investigation from that end, and contact you if any solid evidence concerning Will’s disappearance turns up.” _

_ “In the meantime,”  _ Chiron continued,  _ “you are to leave for Rhen Var at once. Determine if Percy is indeed on the planet, and what his objective might be. Any information into Padawan Solace’s whereabouts are also to be considered a priority.” _

Rachel stood up abruptly. “Yes!” she cried out, waving the datapad overhead. 

Jason turned to her, one eyebrow raised.

“Uh, not about that,” she said sheepishly. “Something else. At least, I hope so.”

“...right,” Jason responded flatly, turning back to the Masters. “I’ll depart as soon as possible. Is there anything else?”

Chiron shook his head.  _ “No, I believe that’s everything. Good luck, Jason.” _

Asclepius nodded,  _ “and may the Force be with you.” _

The room went dark for a moment as the holograms flickered and faded, before the suite’s lights came back up. Jason didn’t even have time to turn before Rachel had a hand on his shoulder. Some of the exhaustion had left her eyes.

“I think I’ve got our lead on Annabeth,” she said excitedly. “I’ll explain on the way to the spaceport.”

“The spaceport?” Jason asked, “are you planning to come with us?” Bounty hunters were one thing, but Jason didn’t like the idea of bringing along a civilian.

Rachel just shook her head, however. “I’m staying here,” she explained, “but we’ll have to get you a new ship. I need to borrow Piper and Leo for a while.”

 

*******

 

The “new ship” was a CEC K595 single occupancy personal transport, which Leo had sniffed at but pronounced adequate. While Rachel and the salesman finalized the purchase, the bounty hunters pulled Jason aside.

“Okay, I know she’s come through for us before,” Piper began warily, “but is splitting up a good idea?”

“Yeah,” concurred Leo, “are you cool with going it alone? Tatooine is a long way from Rhen Var. If anything happens, there’s no way we make it to you in time.”

Jason wasn’t particularly thrilled with the idea of going to Rhen Var alone, nor did he like sending Piper and Leo to comb some empty desert in search of this “Pines” woman. But Rachel seemed convinced, and their circle of trust wasn’t exactly full to bursting. “I’m not crazy about it,” he admitted, “but I think it might be our best shot.” A two-pronged approach could help them get to Percy Jackson  _ and  _ Annabeth Chase in one fell swoop. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

So while Jason chased down this sighting of Jackson, Leo and Piper would be on the far side of the galaxy, scouring the famously desolate world of Tatooine for a woman who, according to Rachel Dare, was one of Chase’s oldest and most trusted friends.

_ “Thalia Pines,” Rachel explained, calling up a holoimage of a woman in her mid-20’s, with short black hair and a challenging look on her face. Something in that face seemed strangely familiar to Jason, but he pushed it aside as Rachel kept talking. “Annabeth’s known her since...forever.” _

_ “How long is forever, exactly?” Piper asked skeptically. _

_ “Since before she ever set foot in the Jedi Temple,” explained Rachel. “Annabeth wasn’t recruited into the Jedi from her homeworld; she ran away from home when she was a kid. Thalia was another runaway, she helped her get to Coruscant. ” _

_ Jason frowned deeply at that. “That’s not how I heard it. It was Luke Castellan who found her.” The two had come to the Temple together, a weary teenage boy and the little girl clinging to his arm. Jason had been very young at the time, but he could still remember that it had just been  the two. _

_ Rachel shrugged. “Thalia didn’t stick with them the whole way, just long enough to get them on a ship. She’s not the biggest fan of Coruscant. Or…” she eyed Jason warily, “...of the Jedi.” _

_ “Why is that?” asked Jason. There was no point looking for her if she wouldn’t be willing to help. _

_ “Well, she was born on Coruscant,” said Rachel, “but she ran away when she was just a kid. Family issues is what she always said. As for the Jedi? I have no idea what the deal is there, but it’s never stopped her from looking out for Annabeth before. She and Percy are friends too, so I think she’ll help us get to the bottom of all this.” _

_ “And you didn’t mention this oh-so-helpful old friend before now because…?” Piper asked pointedly. _

_ With another shrug, Rachel sighed. “It’s been a difficult few weeks, if you haven’t noticed, and I only met her a handful of times. Thalia’s kind of a loner, and she tends to stick to the Outer Rim. She makes a living taking down wildlife that get a little too unfriendly with whatever passes for civilization out there. I know she’s somewhere on Tatooine, but I need experts—you guys, in this case—to do the legwork tracking her down.” _

So that’s where they were now: Splitting up to tackle to problems at once. Jason was uneasy, but this seemed like the best chance they had. And despite his nerves, he had to admit that he was eager to get underway. This felt like something real. This felt like things were moving forward.

Rachel approached them. “You’re all set,” she told him. “She’s fueled up and cleared to take off whenever you’re ready.”

Jason turned back to the bounty hunters. “I guess this is it,” he said.

“Guess so,” Leo replied uneasily. “Listen, if things go sideways out there…”

“Call,” Piper said firmly, placing a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “We’ll be there.”

“Thanks, guys,” he said gratefully. 

Turning to the ship, Jason made for the loading ramp. There was no more time to waste.

_ ‘I hope you’re ready, Percy’ _ he thought to himself,  _ ‘because  _ I _ am.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did **not** mean to wait this long to update. Life, as so often unfortunately happens, happened. I have most of act 2 roughly plotted out, so updates should ( _hopefully_ ) be a little quicker from here.


End file.
